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Cf)e 'Barne0 (!BngH0J) Ceit0 


GENERAL EDITOR 

EDWIN FAIRLEY 

Head of the English Department, Jamaica High School 
New York City 


Cf)e TSatne^ OBngHgl) Cexts 

GENERAL EDITOR 

EDWIN FAIRLEY 
Head of the Department of English 
Jamaica High School, New York City 

POE, LONGFELLOW, WHITTIER: 

The Raven, The Courtship of Miles Standish, 
Snowbound 

Edited by Charles Elbert Rhodes, Head of the Depart- 
ment of English, Lafayette High School, Buffalo, N. Y. 

STEVENSON: 

Treasure Island 

Edited by Ferdinand Q. Blanchard 

SHAKESPEARE: 

Jidius Caesar 

Edited by Charles Addison Dawson, Ph. D., Head of the 
Department of English, Central High School, Syracuse, N. Y. 

Merchant of Venice 

Edited by Charles Robert Gaston, Ph. D., Head of the 
Department of English, Richmond Hill High School, New 
York City 

Macbeth 

Edited by Clarence W. Vail, Manual Training High 
School, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

IN PREPARATION 

ELIOT: 

Silas Marner 

By the General Editor 

HAWTHORNE: 

The House of the Seven Gables 

Edited by Emma F. Lowd, Head of the Department of 
English, Washington Irving High School, New York City 

American Poems 

Edited by Ernest C. Noyes, Fifth Avenue High School, 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 





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TREASURE ISLAND 


ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 

I* 


EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
AND NOTES BY 

FERDINAND Q. BLANCHARD 



NEW YORK 

A. S. BARNES COMPANY 
1913 


THE 



3 

T 

33 


Copyright, 1913 
The a. S. Barkes Company 



©CU358052 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Life of Stevenson 7 

How Treasure Island Came to be Written. . 15 

A Brief Bibliography 19 

Treasure Island 21 


Part I. The Old Buccaneer. 
Part II. The Sea Cook. 

Part III. My Shore Adventure. 
Part IV. The Stockade. 

Part V. My Sea Adventure. 
Part VI. Captain Silver. 


Notes 259 

Topics FOR Classroom Use 265 

Description 272 

Additional Composition Topics 274 


9 



LIFE OF STEVENSON 


“Stevenson ws the most exquisite English writer 
of his generation, but those who lived close to him 
are apt to think less of that than of the fact that 
he was the most unselfish and most lovable of human 
beings.” 

This is the statement in regard to Robert Louis 
Stevenson by his friend. It suggests at once that 
the author of Treasure Island was a man whom it 
would be interesting to know. And it is a fact 
that in the simple record of his life we find one of 
his great claims to remembrance. 

He was born November 13, 1850, in the grey old 
city of Edinburgh. His father, Thomas Steven- 
son, was a man of ability and note. For two gen- 
erations the Stevensons had been builders of light- 
houses. Many of the coastwise lights of England 
are monuments to their engineering skill, daring, 
and persistence. Their fame had gone abroad and 
they were employed as consulting engineers by the 
India, New Zealand, and Japan Light House Boards. 

Stevenson’s mother, Margaret Balfour, was the 
daughter of a Presbyterian minister. In her old 
home at Colinton her little boy spent some of his hap- 
piest hours. Here were gathered many interesting 
treasures which the children of the manse had 
brought home from far wanderings. Here, too, were 
the memories of days of romance and adventure that 
clung about the Balfour name. 

7 


8 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


But whether in city or country the comfort and 
good care that suri'ounded Louis were not able to 
save him from many days of sickness and pain. The 
spirit which so manfully struggled in later years 
was shown even as a child. Since he could not en- 
joy the games out of doors which a restless, high 
spirited boy like himself craved, he made the best 
of the situation and turned his bed into a battle- 
field or a countryside. His little verse about all 
this is worth recalling: 

When I was sick and lay a-bed, 

I had two pillows at my head, 

And all my toys beside me lay 
To keep me happy all the day. 

And sometimes for an hour or so 
I watched my leaden soldiers go, 

With different uniforms and drills. 

Among the bed clothes, through the hills. 

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets 
All up and down among the sheets; 

Or brought my trees and houses out. 

And planted cities all about. 

I was the giant great and still 
That sits upon the pillow-hill. 

And sees before him, dale and plain. 

The pleasant land of counterpane. 

One should not forget either his good nurse, Ali- 
son Cunningham, whose patience and sympathy 
helped him endure the hours of his many illnesses. 
What fine words are these with which Stevenson in 
after years paid his tribute to her faithful care : 
“]\Iy recollection of the long nights when I was kept 
awake by coughing are only relieved by the thought 
of the tenderness of my nurse and second mother, 
(for my first wWl not be jealous), Alice Cunning- 


LIFE OF STEVENSON 


9 


ham. She was more patient than 1 can suppose of 
an angel ; hours together she would help and console 
me . . . till the whole sorrow of the night was at 
an end with the arrival of the first of that long 
string of country carts, that in the dark hours of 
the morning, with the neighing of horses, the crack- 
ing of the whips, the shouts of drivers, and a hundred 
other wholesome noises, creaked, rolled, and pounded 
past my window.” 

Plis father naturally wished him to uphold the 
family tradition and enter the family firm. So in 
due course of time Stevenson went up to the old uni- 
versity in his home city. Here his interest in his 
studies was not sufficient to gain him a notable rank, 
although his native ability saved him from failure. 
Before long he came to the definite conclusion that he 
would not be a success as an engineer. The romance 
of the family achievements appealed to him, but the 
hard, prosaic details out of the knowledge of which 
such work had been possible formed no congenial 
course of study for his bent of mind. He realized 
that his real power lay in literature. Places and 
events seemed to speak of stories that no one had 
yet told but which he might tell. He loved also the 
art of writing well, of forming sentences that should 
at once say something and say it forcibly and finely. 
So to the regret but with the consent of his father 
he began deliberately to plan for a literary career. 
The stipulation, however, was that he prepare him- 
self for law as a resource if need arose. 

University days being ended he spent some time 
in a law office, the largest profit of which would seem 
to have been the intimate knowledge of conditions 
which in story or essay he later reproduced most 


10 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


interestingly. Meanwhile, he had begun a serious 
endeavor to win a place among the regularly ac- 
cepted contributors to the magazines. Systematic 
work was prevented, how'ever, by illness. He left the 
chill winds of Scotland for the summer skies of 
France and after some travel he settled at Fontain- 
bleau. The story of these early w^anderings is con- 
tained in his two volumes. An Inland Voyage and 
Travels xeith a Donkey in the Cevennes. 

While at Fontainbleau an event occurred which 
influenced his whole after career. In the English 
colony there was an American lad}”^ from California, 
Mrs. Osbourne, wuth her two children. She had been 
unhappily married and her home had been broken up. 
Stevenson fell in love with her. The situation, un- 
fortunately, permitted no immediate happy settle- 
ment and after a time Mrs. Osbourne returned to 
America. Stevenson was disconsolate. Prompted 
partly b}’^ the desire to be near the object of his 
affection and partly by the appeal of adventure, he 
determined on a trip to the United States. Economy 
and this same spirit of adventure led him into a rash 
method of carrying out a doubtful plan. He took 
passage in the steerage for the voyage and, arriving 
in the United States, crossed the country in an 
emigrant train. When he reached California he was 
not only practically without funds but also on the 
verge of illness. Yet his pluck was not .shaken and 
he set to work, hoping to maintain himself by his 
pen. The odds were too heavy against him. His 
health gave way completely and it seemed as though 
he could not recover. While he was lying ill at 
Monterey in surroundings w'retched for a desper- 
ately sick man, Mrs. Osbourne learned of his con- 


LIFE OF STEVENSON 


11 


dition. The courts had set her free from her former 
unfortunate alliance. She hastened to Stevenson, 
nursed him back to health, and finally in 1880 they 
were married. Their honeymoon was spent in a de- 
serted mining camp in the California coast range. 
All these varied experiences of life are sketched in 
the series of essays on The Amateur Emigrant, 
Across the Plains, and The Silverado Squatters. 

Stevenson’s marriage was a very happy one. Of 
his wife he wrote the words : 

“Teacher, tender, comrade, wife, 

A fellow-farer true through life, 

Heartwhole and soul-free. 

The august father 
Gave to me.” 

Affairs now took a turn for the better. His father 
had naturally been displeased at the American trip 
and such vague information as he had had of his 
son’s love affair had not unreasonably occasioned 
his disapproval. But he now came forward with 
financial aid and Stevenson and his bride returning 
to Scotland v'ere heartily welcomed home. 

All the bright prospects were then suddenly dark- 
ened. Stevenson fell ill again and now his constitu- 
tion seemed permanently wrecked. The following 
years were spent in a vain search for health. In the 
Scotch highlands, in Switzerland, in Southern 
France, and then in England, he fought the bitter 
fight against disease. At one time while at Hyeres 
he contracted, in addition to his other troubles, a 
severe and painful affection of the eyes which con- 
demned him to total darkness. But despite all this 
he kept steadily at work and some of his best known 


12 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


books were produced during these years. Besides 
Treasure Island, to which reference will be made 
more particularly later, he wrote Kidnapped, a fine 
tale of adventure, in which “the wind seemed to turn 
the pages of that swift record and the smell of the 
heather comes with it,” and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde, a weird, terrible story of the way good and 
evil contend together in human nature. Several 
shorter stories were also written and numerous ex- 
cellent essays. 

In 1887, his father died. The loss was deeply felt 
by Stevenson for, despite the difference in their 
tastes, father and son had been devotedly attached to 
one another. As in the case of others of his loved 
ones, he wrote of his father and his father’s influence 
memorable lines : 

“In the first hour, the seaman in his skiff 
Moves through the unmoving bay, to where the town 

Its earliest smoke into the air upbreathes 
And the rough hazel climbs along the beach. 

To the tugg’d oar the distant echo speaks. 

The ship lies resting, where by reef and roost 

Thou and thy lights have led her like a child. 

This thou hast done, and — can I be base? 

I must arise, O father, and to port 

Some lost, complaining seaman pilot home.” 

Stevenson now decided on another visit to America 
and with his wife and mother he sailed for New York. 
The ensuing winter he spent in the Adirondack 
mountains, where he continued his literary work. 
Among other tasks he began The Master of Bal- 
lantrae, a rather gloomy story of violence and 
treachery, the scenes laid in Scotland and the New 
York forests. Conditions, however, were not favor- 
able for a continued residence in the mountains. 


LIFE OF STEVENSON 


13 


After some thought, therefore, Stevenson finally de- 
cided upon a cruise in the Pacific. He succeeded in 
making such arrangements with American publishers 
for letters of travel that he was able to finance the 
venture. For two years he sailed among the South 
Sea Islands. Finding the climate in these waters the 
most favorable to him of all the varied sorts he had 
tested in his years of travel, he concluded to make a 
settled home in the little island of Samoa. There 
the last fleeting years of his life were happily spent. 
He took great interest in the development of his 
small estate which he named “Vailima.” 

In the troubled political conditions of the island 
where European interests clashed with one another 
and invaded the natives’ rights he played an eager 
part as uncompromising champion of the Samoans. 
The latter repaid his efforts with sincere affection. 
They called him Tusitala (the teller of tales). As a 
mark of their gratitude for one service he rendered 
them they built a forest road from Apia, the little 
capital of the island, to “Vailima,” which they spoke 
of as “The Road of the Loving Heart,” and dedi- 
cated to him in the following words : “Considering 
the great love of his Excellency, Tusitala, in his lov- 
ing care of us in our tribulation in the prison, we 
have made this great gift. It shall never be muddy. 
It shall go on forever, this road that we have dug.” 

In this new life he seemed to be possessed of all the 
energy of a strong man. Riding his horse, sailing 
his boat, working long and strenuously on many lines 
of literary effort, he filled the days to overflowing 
with his activity. In Vailima Letters^ the intimate 
personal record of these days written for his friend, 
we have the splendid story of it all. 


14 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


Yet the fight had never ceased. Of the spirit with 
which it was faced and which enabled him to do so 
much we have his brave confession: “I have written 
in bed and written out of it, written in hemorrhages, 
written in sickness, written torn by coughing, 
written when my head swam for weakness , . . 
And the battle goes on — ill or well, is a trifle ; so 
it goes. I was made for a contest, and the powers 
have so willed that the battlefield should be this 
dingy, inglorious one of the bed and the physic 
bottle.” And the candle of his life was fast con- 
sumed in the flame he kept burning so brightly. 
Suddenly, one afternoon in December, 1894, after a 
day of pleasant duties and while he was chatting 
gaily with his wife, the end came. He fell uncon- 
scious at her feet and in a few hours was dead. 

The grief-stricken natives, eager to do one last 
act of loving service for their good friend, cut a road 
up the steep side of a mountain rising near his 
house and bore his body to the summit through this 
pathway in the tropical forest. There they laid it 
to rest where the leaves and birds keep watch. No 
more appropriate place can one imagine for the 
grave of him who knew and loved so well the wide, 
free life of sea and land. Upon the stone that marks 
the grave were inscribed his own words of requiem; 

“Under the wide and starry sky, 

Dig the grave and let me lie, 

Glad did I live and gladly die. 

And I laid me down with a will. 

This be the verse you grave for me: 

Here he lies where he longed to be; 

Home is the sailor, home from the seat 
And the hunter home from the hill.” 


THE WRITING OF TREASURE 
ISLAND 

In the summer of 1881, Stevenson was at Braemar, 
a lovely spot in the Scotch Highlands. He had re- 
turned shortly before this from America with his 
bride. His father and mother had been delighted 
with Mrs. Stevenson and they had looked forward to 
the prospect of a reunited family in Edinburgh. But 
again the chill fogs had forced them to leave the city 
for the sake of Stevenson’s health. Mrs. Stevenson’s 
little son, Lloyd Osbourne, was with them. Much 
stormy weather kept them all shut in the house dur- 
ing a good many days and, as is the case with most 
small boys under such conditions, the boy in this 
group found time heavy on his hands. For his 
amusement Stevenson called into play his own fertile 
imagination. Among other things the drawing of 
maps and pictures proved delightful fun. As he 
looked at one of his productions of this sort the idea 
of the story of Treasure Island suddenly popped 
into Stevenson’s head. His own words about it are 
these : “As I pored upon my map of Treasure Island, 
the future characters of the book began to appear 
there visibly among imaginary woods, and their 
brown faces and bright weapons' peeped out upon 
me from unexpected quarters, as they passed to and 
fro, fighting and hunting treasure, on these few 
inches of a flat projection.” 

15 


16 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


He immediately set to work to write out the tale 
and each evening the instalment he had finished that 
day was read to the assembled family. Stevenson’s 
father entered enthusiastically into the spirit of the 
story, contributing from his own experience many 
nautical terms and suggestions as to the sea life. Just 
at this time a friend of the author, Mr. A. J. Japp, 
came to the cottage for a brief visit. He, also, was 
hugely pleased with the stirring narrative, so much 
pleased, in fact, that when he started away he had 
prevailed on Stevenson to let him take the manuscript 
already prepared and present it to a publisher. 

This resulted in the acceptance of the story by the 
publisher of a magazine called Young Folks. It 
began to appear in serial form in October. The 
author’s name was given as Captain George North. 
Work on Treasure Island was interrupted by a 
change of residence from Braemar to Davos in 
Switzerland, where, amid the rush of new ideas for 
his tale, it was finished at the rate of one chapter 
each day. 

Strangely enough it attracted little attention as 
it appeared in serial form. But in 1 883, it came into 
its own. Published as a book it scored a popular 
triumph, and since then no one with a liking for a 
rousing story of action has ever known where to turn 
for a better one than Treasure Island. 

In what lies the great charm of the book.^ First 
of all, perhaps, is the fact that Stevenson himself 
greatly enjoyed just such a story and wrote with 
enthusiasm and keen interest. 

In one of his essays he speaks of the delight he 
took in stories of adventure. 


THE WRITING OF TREASURE ISLAND 


17 


“For my part I liked a story to begin with an old 
wayside inn where, ‘toward the close of the year 17 — , 
several gentlemen in three-cocked hats were playing 
bowls.’ Give me a highwayman and I was full to the 
brim ; a Jacobite would do, but the highwayman was 
my favorite dish. I can still hear that merry clatter 
of the hoofs along the moonlit lane; night and the 
coming of day are still related in my mind with the 
doings of John Rann or Jerry Abershaw; and the 
words ‘postchaise,’ the ‘great North road,’ ‘ostler,’ 
and ‘nag’ still sound in my ears like poetry.” And 
a little later in the same essay he writes : “The old 
Hawes Inn at the Queen’s Ferry makes a similar call 
upon my fancy. There it stands, apart from the 
town, beside the pier, in a climate of its own, half 
inland, half marine — in front, the ferry bubbling 
with the tide and the guard-ship swinging to her 
anchor ; behind, the old garden with the trees. 
Americans seek it already for the sake of Lovel and 
Oldbuck, who dined there at the beginning of the 
‘Antiquary.’ But you need not tell me — that is 
not all ; there is some story, unrecorded or not yet 
complete, which must express the meaning of that 
inn more fully.” 

Again, the characters are most skilfully drawn. 
It is said that Long John Silver was modelled from a 
friend of Stevenson’s, W. E. Henley, his good quali- 
ties turned just enough to be dangerous vices and 
yet left with enough of their fascinating appeal to 
make Silver a likable villain, after all. The squire 
with his hearty, thoughtless enthusiasm and courage, 
the faithful, stolid Redruth, and the brisk, capable 
Doctor enlist our sympathy and interest immediately. 

But the third element of its appeal is Stevenson’s 


18 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


style. He wrote this story more quickly and gave it 
less careful revision than he bestowed on almost all 
his other works ; but as a piece of vigorous descrip- 
tion it is beyond criticism. The scenes live. There 
are not so many words that the interest flags in the 
process of getting acquainted with the details, but 
there is always sufficient fulness to the narrative to 
bring clear, vivid pictures before the mind. How' 
easy it is to see in imagination the dark road with the 
blind pirate and the rush of horsemen from the vil- 
lage sweeping down upon him or the ship when Jim 
and Israel Hands played tag upon the deck with 
death for one or the other as the end of the game. 
It is all done so simply and so naturally that it is not 
appreciated at first, but if one compares it with the 
ordinary description in a story of adventure he will 
feel at once how much more vivid is the effect Steven- 
son produced. 

In Treasure Island, real people seem to do real 
things amid clearly pictured surroundings. In 
most books at all similar in general character, the 
author pulls rather shadowy figures into somew'hat 
improbable, indefinitely outlined situations. This is 
w'hy a great man of affairs like Gladstone is said 
to have spent a good part of a day hunting for a 
copy of Treastire Island after having glanced over 
the story at the house of a friend. 


A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 

PuiNCiPAL Works of Stevenson 


An Inland Voyage, 1878. 

Travels with a Donkey, 1879. 

Virginibus Puerisque, 1881. 

Familiar Studies of Men and Books, 1882. 

Treasure Island, 1883. 

The Silverado Squatters, 1883. 

Prince Otto, 1885. 

A Child's Garden of Verses, 1885. 

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886. 
Kidnapped, 1886. 

The Merry Men, 1887. 

Memories and Portraits, 1887. 

The Black Arrow, 1888. 

The Master of Ballantrae, 1889. 

The Wrong Box, (in collaboration with Lloyd Os- 
bourne), 1889. 

The Wrecker, (with Lloyd Osbourne), 1892. 

Across the Plains, 1892. 

Island Nights' Entertainments, 1893. 

David Balfour, (called Catriona in Great Britain), 
1893. 

The Ebb Tide, (with Lloyd Osbourne), 1894. 
Vailima Letters, 1895. 

Weir of Hermiston, 1896. 

St. Ives, (completed by A. T. Quiller-Couch), 1899. 
Letters, (edited by Sidney Colvin), 1899, an en- 
larged edition, 1911. 

19 


20 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


BlOGRArmCAL 

Life, by Graham Balfour, 1901. 

Robert Louis Stevenson, by Walter Raleigh, 1895. 

Robert Louis Stevenson, by L. Cope Cornford, 1899 ; 
see also the articles on Stevenson by Sidney Col- 
vin in the Dictionary of National Biography, 
and by Edmund Gosse in the eleventh edition of 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


PART I 

THE OLD BUCCANEER 
CHAPTER I 

THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE “aDMIEAL BENBOw” 

Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of 
these gentlemen having asked me to write down the 
whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the 
beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the 
bearings of the island, and that only because there 
is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in 
the year of grace 17 — , and go back to the time 
when my father kept the “Admiral Benbow” inn, 
and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first 
took up his lodging under our roof. 

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he 
came plodding to the inn door, his sea chest follow- 
ing behind him in a handbarrow; a tall, strong, 
heavy, nut-ibrown man ; his tarry pigtail falling over 
the shoulders of his soiled blue coat ; his hands 
ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails ; and 
the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. 
I remember him looking round the cove and whistling 
to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in 
that old sea song that he sang so often afterward: — 

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — 
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” 


21 


22 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


in the high, old, tottering voice that seemed to have 
been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then 
he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a 
handspike that he carried, and when my father ap- 
peared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, 
when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like 
a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still look- 
ing about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard. 

“This is a handy cove,” says he, at length; “and 
a pleasant sittyated grogshop. Much company, 
mate.?” 

My father told him no, very little company, the 
more was the pity. 

“Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me. 
Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trun- 
dled the barrow; “bring up alongside and help up 
my chest. I’ll stay here a bit,” he continued. “I’m 
a plain man ; rum and bacon and eggs is what I 
want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. 
What you mought call me.? You mought call me 
captain. Oh, I see what you^re at — there ;” and he 
threw down three or four gold pieces on the thresh- 
old. “You can tell me when I’ve worked through 
that,” says he, looking as fierce as a commander. 

And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely 
as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a 
man who sailed before the mast ; but seemed like 
a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to 
strike. The man who came with the barrow told us 
the mail had set him down the morning before at the 
“Ro^ml George ;” that he had inquired what inns 
there were along the coast, and hearing ours well 
spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonel}", had 


TREASURE ISLAND 


23 


chosen it from the others for his place of residence. 
And that was all we could learn of our guest. 

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he 
hung around the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass 
telescope ; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor 
next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. 
Mostly he would not speak when spoken to ; only look 
up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like 
a foghorn ; and we and the people who came about 
our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, 
when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if 
any seafaring men had gone by along the road.? At 
first we thought it waS the want of company of his 
own kind that made him ask this question ; but at 
last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. 
When a seaman put up at the “Admiral Benbow” 
(as now and then some did, making by the coast road 
for Bristol), he would look in at him through the 
curtained door before he entered the parlor; and he 
was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any 
siicih was present. For me, at least, there was no 
secret about the matter ; for I was, in a way, a sharer 
in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day, and 
promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every 
month if I would only keep my “weather eye open for 
a seafaring man with one leg,” and let him know the 
moment he appeared. Often enough, when the first 
of the month came around, and I applied to him for 
my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, 
and stare me down ; but before the week was out he 
was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny 
piece, and repeat his orders to look out for “the sea- 
faring man with one leg.” 


24 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


How that personage haunted mj dreams, I need 
scarcel}^ tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind 
shook the four corners of the house, and the surf 
roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see 
him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand dia- 
bolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off 
at the knee, now at the hip ; now he was a monstrous 
kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, 
and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap 
and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was 
the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid 
pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the 
shape of these abominable fancies. 

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the 
seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid 
of the captain himself than anybody else who kne^^ 
him. There were nights when he took a deal more 
rum and w^ater than his head would carry ; and then 
he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild 
sea songs, minding nobody ; but sometimes he would 
call for glasses round, and force all the trembling 
company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to 
his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking 
with “Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum all the neigh- 
bors joining in for dear life, with the fear of death 
upon them, and each singing louder than the other, 
to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most 
over-riding companion ever known; he would slap 
his hand on the table for silence all round ; he would 
fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or some- 
times because none was put, and so he judged the 
company was not following his story. Nor would he 
allow any one to leave the inn till he had drunk him- 
self sleepy and reeled off to bed. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


25 


His stories were what frightened people worst of 
all. Dreadful stories they were ; about hanging, and 
walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry 
Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish 
Main. By his own account he must have lived his life 
among some of the wickedest men that God ever 
allowed upon the sea; and the language in which he 
told these stories shocked our plain country people 
almost as much as the crimes that he described. My 
father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for 
people would soon cease coming there to be tyran- 
nized over and put down, and sent shivering to their 
beds ; but I really believe his presence did us good. 
People were frightened at the time, but on looking 
back they rather liked it ; it was a fine excitement in a 
quiet country life ; and there was even a party of the 
younger men who pretended to admire him, calling 
him a “true sea dog,” and a “real old salt,” and such 
like names, and saying there w as the sort of man that 
made England terrible at sea. 

In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us ; for 
he kept on staying week after week, and at last 
month after month, so that all the money had been 
long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up 
the heart to insist on having more. If ever he men- 
tioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly, 
that you might say he roared, and stared my poor 
father out of the room. I have seen him wringing 
his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the an- 
noyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly 
hastened his early and unhappy death. 

All the time he lived with us the captain made 
no change whatever in his dress but to buy some 
stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his 


26 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


hat having fallen down, he let it hang from'that day 
forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew. 
I remember the appearance of his coat, which he 
patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, be- 
fore the end, was nothing but patches. He never 
wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with 
any but the neighbors, and with these, for the most 
part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea chest 
none of us had ever seen open. 

He was only once crossed, and that was toward 
the end, when my poor father was far gone in a 
decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one 
afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner 
from my mother, and went into the parlor to smoke 
a pipe until his horse should come down from the 
hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old “Benbow.” 
I followed him in, and I remember observing the con- 
trast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as 
white as snow, and his bright black eyes and pleasant 
manners, made with the coltish country folk, and 
above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow 
of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum, with his 
arms on the table. Suddenly he — - the captain, that 
is — began to pipe up his eternal song : — 

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — 
Yonho-ho, and a bottle of rum ! 

Drink and the devil had done for the rest — 
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !” 

At first I had supposed “the dead man’s chest” to be 
that identical big box of his upstairs in the front 
room, and the thought had been mingled in my night- 
mares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. 
But by this time we had all long ceased to pay any 
particular notice to the song; it was new, that night. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


2T 


to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it 
did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked 
up for a moment quite angrily before he went on with 
his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure 
for the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain 
gradually brightened up at his own music, and at 
last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a 
way we all knew to mean — silence. The voices 
stopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey’s ; he went on as 
before, speaking clear and kind, and drawing briskly 
at his pipe between every word or two. The captain 
glared at him for awhile, flapped his hand again, 
glared still harder, and at last broke out with a 
villainous, low oath : “Silence, there, between decks !” 

“Were you addressing me, sir?” says the doctor; 
and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, 
that this was so, “I have only one thing to say to 
you, sir,” replies the doctor, “that if you keep on 
drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very 
dirty scoundrel!” 

The old fellow’s fury was awful. lie sprang to 
his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp knife, and, 
balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened 
to pin the doctor to the wall. 

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to 
him, as before, over his shoulder, and in the same 
tone of voice ; rather high, so that all in the room 
might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: — 

“If you do not put that knife this instant in your 
pocket, I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at 
next assizes.” 

Then followed a battle of looks between them ; but 
the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, 
and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog. 


28 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


“And now, sir,” continued the doctor, “since I now 
know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may 
count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. I’m 
not a doctor only ; I’m a magistrate ; and if I catch 
a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a 
piece of incivility like to-night’s. I’ll take effectual 
means to have you hunted down and routed out of 
this. Let that suffice.” 

Soon after Dr. Livesey’s horse came to the door, 
and, he rode away ; but the captain held his peace that 
evening, and for many evenings to come. 


CHAPTER II 

BLACK DOG APPEAKS AND DISAPPEARS 

It was not very long after this that there occurred 
the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last 
of the captain, though not, as you will see, of his 
affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard 
frosts and heavy gales ; and it was plain from the 
first that my poor father was little likely to see the 
spring. He sank daily, and my mother and I had 
all the inn upon our hands ; and were kept busy 
enough, without paying much regard to our un- 
pleasant guest. 

It was one January morning, very early — a 
pinching, frosty morning — the cove all gray with 
hoarfi-ost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, 
the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and 
shining far to seaward. The captain had risen 
earlier than usual, and set out down the beach, his 
cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old 
blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat 


TREASURE ISLAND 


29 


tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath 
hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and 
the last sound I heard of him, as he turned the big 
rock, was a loud snort of indignation, as though his 
mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey. 

Well, mother was upstairs with father; and I was 
laying the breakfast table against the captain’s re- 
turn, when the parlor door opened, and a man 
stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. 
He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers 
of the left hand ; and, though he wore a cutlass, he 
did not look much like a fighter. I had always my 
eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and 
I remember this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, 
and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too. 

I asked him what was for his service, and he said 
he would take rum ; but as I was going out of the 
room to fetch it he sat down upon a table and mo- 
tioned me to draw near. I paused where I was with 
my napkin in my hand. 

“Come here, sonny,” says he. “Come nearer 
here.” I took a step nearer. 

“Is this here table for my mate Bill.?” he asked, 
with a kind of leer. 

I told him I did not know his mate Bill ; and this 
was for a person who stayed in our house, whom we 
called the captain. 

“Well,” said he, “my mate Bill would be called the 
captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one cheek, 
and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in 
drink, has my mate Bill. We’ll put it, for argument 
like, that your captain has a cut on one cheek — and 
we’ll put it, if you like, that that cheek’s the right 


30 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my mate Bill in 
this here house 

I told him he was out walking. 

“Which way, sonny Which way is he gone.?^” 

And when I had pointed out the rock and told him 
how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, 
and answered a few other questions, “Ah,” said he, 
“this’ll be as good as drink to my mate Bill.” 

The expression of his face as he said these words 
was not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons 
for thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even 
supposing he meant what he said. But it was no 
affair of mine, I thought ; and, besides, it was difficult 
to know what to do. The stranger kept hanging 
about just inside the inn door, peering round the 
corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I 
stepped out myself into the road, but he immediately 
called me back, and, as I did not obey quick enough 
for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his 
tallowy face, and he ordered me in, with an oath that 
made me jump. As soon as I was back again he re- 
turned ito his former manner, half fa^vning, half 
sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a 
good boy, and he had taken quite a fancy to me. “I 
have a son of my own,” said he, “as like you as two 
blocks, and he’s all the pride of my ’art. But the 
great thing for boys is discipline, sonny — discipline. 
Now, if you had sailed along of Bill, you wouldn’t 
have stood there to be spoke to twice — not you. 
That was never Bill’s way, nor the way of sich as 
sailed with him. And here, sure enough, is my mate 
Bill, with a spyglass under his arm, bless his old ’art, 
to be sure. You and me’ll just go back into the par- 


TREASURE ISLAND 


31 


lor, sonny, and get behind the door, and we’ll give 
Bill a little surprise — bless his ’art, I say again.” 

So saying, the stranger backed along with me into 
the parlor, and put me behind him in the corner, so 
that we were both hidden by the open door. I was 
very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it 
rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger 
w^as certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt 
of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath; 
and all the time we were waiting there he kept swal- 
lowing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the 
throat. 

At last in strode the captain, slammed the door 
behind him, without looking to the right or left, and 
marched straight across the room to where his break- 
fast awaited him. 

“Bill,” said the stranger, in a voice that I thought 
he had tried to make bold and big. 

The captain spun round on his heel and fronted 
us ; all the brown had gone out of his face, and even 
his nose was blue ; he had the look of a man who sees 
a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, if any- 
thing can be ; and, upon my word, I felt sorry to see 
him, all in a moment, turn so old and sick., 

“Come, Bill, you know me ; you know an old ship- 
mate, Bill, surely,” said the stranger. 

The captain made a sort of gasp. 

“Black Dog !” said he. 

“And who else.^” returned the other, getting more 
at his ease. “Black Dog as ever was, come for to see 
his old shipmate Billy, at the ‘Admiral Benbow’ inn. 
Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, 
since I lost them two talons,” holding up his muti- 
lated hand. 


32 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


“Now, look here,” said the captain ; “you’ve run 
me down; here I am; well, then, speak up; what is 
it?” 

“That’s you. Bill,” returned Black Dog, “you’re 
in the right of it, Billy. I’ll have a glass of rum 
from this dear child here, as I’ve took such a liking 
to ; and we’ll sit down, if you please, and talk square, 
like old shipmates.” 

When I returned with the rum, they were already 
seated on either side of the captain’s breakfast 
table — Black Dog next to the door, and sitting 
sideways, so as to have one eye on his old shipmate, 
and one, as I thought, on his retreat. 

He bade me go, and leave the door wide open. 
“None of your keyholes for me, sonny,” he said; and 
I left them together, and retired into the bar. 

For a long time, though I certainly did my best to 
listen, I could hear nothing but a low gabbling; but 
at last the voices began to grow higher, and I could 
pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the 
captain. 

“No, no, no, no; and an end of it!” he cried once. 
And again, “If it comes to swinging, swing all, say 

I.” 

Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous ex- 
plosion of oaths and other noises — the chair and 
table went over in a lump, a clash of steel followed, 
and then a cr^^^ of pain, and the next instant I saw 
Black Dog in full flight, and the captain hotly pur- 
suing, both with drawn cutlasses, and the former 
streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just at the 
door, the captain aimed at the fugitive one last 
tremendous cut, which would certainly have split 
him to the chine had it not been intercepted by our 


TREASURE ISLAND 


33 


big signboard of Admiral Benbow. You may see the 
notch on the lower side of the frame to this day. 

That blow was the last of the battle. Once out 
upon the road, Black Oog, in spite of his wound, 
showed a w^onderful clean pair of heels, and disap- 
peared over the edge of the hill in half a minute. The 
captain, for his part, stood staring at the signboard 
like a bewildered man. Then he passed his hand over 
his eyes several times, and at last turned back into 
the house. 

'‘Jim,” says he, “rum and as he spoke, he reeled 
a little, and caught himself with one hand against 
the wall. 

“Are you hurt.^” cried I. 

“Rum,” he repeated. “I must get away from here. 
Rum ! rum !” 

I ran to fetch it ; but I w'as quite unsteadied by all 
that had fallen out, and I broke one glass and fouled 
the tap, and w'hile I was still getting in my own way, 
I heard a loud fall in the parlor, and, running in, 
beheld the captain lying full length upon the floor. 
At the same instant my mother, alarmed by the cries 
and fighting, came running downstairs to help me. 
Between us we raised his head. He was breathing 
very loud and hard ; but his eyes w ere closed, and his 
face a horrible color. 

“Dear, deary me,” cried my mother, “what a dis- 
grace upon the house! And your poor father sick!” 

In the meantime, we had no idea what to do to help 
the captain, nor any other thought but that he had 
got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the stranger. 
I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down 
his throat; but his teeth were tightly shut, and his 
jaws as strong as iron. It w^as a happy relief for us 


34 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


when the door opened and Dr. Livesey came in, on 
his visit to my father. 

“Oh, doctor,” we cried, “what shall we do ? Where 
is he wounded.^” 

“Wounded.? A fiddlestick’s end!” said the doctor. 
“No more wounded than you or I. The man has had 
a stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins, 
just you run upstairs to your husband, and tell him, 
if possible, nothing about it. For my part, I must 
do my best to save this fellow’s trebly worthless life ; 
and Jim here will get me a basin.” 

When I got back with the basin, the doctor had 
already ripped up the captain’s sleeve, and exposed 
his great sinewy arm. It was tattooed in several 
places. “Here’s luck,” “A fair wind,” and “Billy 
Bones his fancy,” were very neatly and clearly exe- 
cuted on the forearm ; and up near the s'houlder there 
was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from 
it — done, as I thought, with great spirit. 

“Prophetic,” said the doctor, touching this pic- 
ture with his finger. “And now. Master Bill Bones, 
if that be your name, we’ll have a look at the color of 
your blood. Jim,” he said, “are you afraid of 
blood.?” 

“No, sir,” said I. 

“Well, then,” said he, “you hold the basin;” and 
with that he took his lancet and opened a vein. 

A great deal of blood was taken before the cap- 
tain opened his eyes and looked mistily about him. 
First he recognized the doctor with an unmistakable 
frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked 
relieved. But suddenly his color changed, and he 
tried to raise himself, crying: — 


“Where’s Black Dog?” 

“There is no Black Dog here,” said the doctor, 
“except what you have on your own back. You have 
been drinking rum ; you have had a stroke, precisely 
as I told you ; and I have just, very much against 
my own will, dragged you headforemost out of the 
grave. Now, Mr. Bones ” 

“That’s not my name,” he interrupted. 

“Much I care,” returned the doctor. “It’s the 
name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance; and I call 
you by it for the sake of shortness, and what I have 
to say to you is this: one glass of rum won’t kill 
you, but if you take one you’ll take another and an- 
other, and I stake my wig if you don’t break off 
short, you’ll die — do you understand that ? — die, 
and go to your own place, like the man in the Bible. 
Come, now, make an effort. I’ll help you to your 
bed for once.” 

Between us, with much trouble, we managed to 
hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where his 
head fell back on the pillow, as if he were almost 
fainting. 

“Now, mind you,” said the doctor, “I clear my 
conscience — the name of rum for you is death.” 

And with that he went off to see my father, taking 
me with him by the arm. 

“This is nothing,” he said, as soon as he had closed 
the door. “I have drawn blood enough to keep him 
quiet a while ; he should lie for a week where he is — 
that is the best thing for him and you ; but another 
stroke would settle him.” 


36 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


CHAPTER III 

THE BLACK SPOT 

About noon I stopped at the captain’s door with 
some cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying 
very much as we had left him, only a little higher, 
and he seemed both weak and excited. 

“Jim,” he said, “you’re the only one here that’s 
worth anything ; and you know I’ve been always good 
to you. Never a month but I’ve given you a silver 
fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, mate, 
I’m pretty low, and deserted by all ; and Jim, you’ll 
bring me one noggin of rum, now, won’t you, 
matey ?” 

“The doctor ” I began. 

But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble 
voice, but heartily. “Doctors is all swabs,” he said ; 
“and that doctor there, why, w'hat do he know’ about 
seafaring men.? I been in places hot as pitch, and 
mates dropping round with Yellow’ Jack, and the 
blessed land a-heaving like the sea with earthquakes 
— what do the doctor know of lands like that ? — 
and I lived on rum, I tell you. It’s been meat and 
drink, and man and wife, to me ; and if I’m not to 
have my rum now’ I’m a poor old hulk on a lee shore, 
my blood’ll be on you, Jim, and that Doctor swab 
and he ran on again for a while with curses. “Look, 
Jim, how my fingers fidges,” he continued, in the 
pleading tone. “I can’t keep ’em still, not I. I 
haven’t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor’s 
a fool, I tell you. If I don’t have a drain o’ rum, 
Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen some on ’em al- 
ready. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind 


TREASURE ISLAND 


37 


you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the 
horrors, I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll 
raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass 
wouldn’t hurt me. I’ll give you a golden guinea for 
a noggin, Jim.” 

He was growing more and more excited, and this 
alarmed me for my father, who was very low that 
day, and needed quiet ; besides, I was reassured by 
the doctor’s words, now quoted to me, and rather 
offended by the offer of a bribe. 

“I want none of your money,” said I, “but what 
you owe my father. I’ll get you one glass, and no 
more.” 

When I brought it to him he seized it greedily, 
and drank it out. 

“Ay, ay,” said he, “that’s some better, sure 
enough. And now, matey, did that doctor say how 
long I was to lie here in this old berth 

“A week at least,” said I.” 

“Thunder!” he cried. “A week! I can’t do that; 
they’d have the black spot on me by then. The 
lubbers is going about to get the wind of me this 
blessed moment; lubbers as couldn’t keep what they 
got, and want to nail what is another’s. Is that 
seamanly behavior, now, I want to know.? But I’m 
a saving soul. I never wasted good money of mine, 
nor lost it neither; and I’ll trick ’em again. I’m not 
afraid on ’em. I’ll shake out another reef, matey, 
and daddle ’em again.” 

As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed 
with great difficulty, holding to my shoulder with a 
grip that almost made me cry out, and moving his 
legs like so much dead weight. His words, spirited 
as they were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the 


38 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


weakness of the voice in which they were uttered. 
He paused when he had got into a sitting position on 
the edge. 

“That doctor’s done me,” he murmured. “My 
ears is singing. Lay me back.” 

Before 1 could do much to help him he had fallen 
back again to his former place, where he lay for a 
Mobile silent. 

“Jim,” he said, at length, “you saw that seafaring 
man to-day.?” 

“Black Dog.?” I asked. 

“Ah! Black Dog,” says he. a bad ’un; but 

there’s worst that put him on. Now, if I can’t get 
away, nohow, and they tip me the black spot, mind 
you, it’s my old sea chest they’re after ; you get on a 
horse — jmu can, can’t you.? Well, then, you get on 
a horse, and go to — well, yes, I will 1 — to that 
eternal doctor swab, and tell him to pipe all hands — 
magistrates and sich — and he’ll lay ’em aboard at 
the ‘Admiral Benbow’ — all old Flint’s crew, man 
and boy, all on ’em that’s left. I was first mate, I 
was, old Flint’s first mate, and I’m the on’y one as 
knows the place. He gave it me at Savannah, when 
he lay a-dying, like as if I was to now, you see. But 
you won’t peach unless they get the black spot on 
me, or unless you see that Black Dog again, or a 
seafaring man with one leg, Jim — him above all.” 

“But what is the black spot, captain.?” I asked. 

“That’s a summons, mate. I’ll tell you if they get 
that. But you keep your weather eye open, Jim, 
and I’ll share with you equals, upon my honor.” 

He wandered a little longer, his voice growing 
weaker ; but soon after I had given him his medicine, 
which he took like a child, with the remark, “If ever 


TREASURE ISLAND 


39 


a seaman wanted drugs, it’s me,” he fell at last into a 
heavy, swoonlike sleep, in which I left him. What I 
should have done had all gone well I do not know. 
Probably I should have told the whole story to the 
doctor; for I was in mortal fear lest the captain 
should repent of his confessions and make an end of 
me. But as things fell out, my poor father died quite 
suddenly that evening, which put all other matters 
on one side. Our natural distress, the visits of the 
neighbors, the arranging of the funeral, and all the 
work of the inn to be carried on in the meanwhile, 
kept me so busy that I had scarcely time to think of 
the captain, far less to be afraid of him. 

He got downstairs next morning, to be sure, and 
had bis meals as usual, though he ate little, and had 
more, I am afraid, than his usual supply of rum, for 
he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and blowing 
through his nose, and no one dared to cross him. On 
the night before the funeral he was as drunk as ever ; 
and it was shocking, in that house of mourning, to 
hear him singing away at his ugly old sea song ; but, 
weak as he was, we were all in the fear of death for 
him, and the doctor was suddenly taken up with a 
case many miles away, and was never near the house 
after my father’s death. I have said the captain was 
weak; and indeed he seemed rather to grow weaker 
than regain his strength. He clambered up and 
downstairs, and went from the parlor to the bar and 
back again, and sometimes put his nose out of doors 
to smell the sea, holding on to the walls as he went 
for support, and breathing hard and fast like a man 
on a steep mountain. He never particularly ad- 
dressed me, and it is my belief he had as good as for- 
gotten his confidences; but his temper was more 


40 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


flighty, and, allowing for his bodily weakness, more 
violent than ever. He had an alarming way now 
when he was drunk of drawing his cutlass and laying 
it bare before him on the table. But, with all that, 
he minded people less, and seemed shut up in his own 
thoughts and rather wandering. Once, for instance, 
to our extreme wonder, he piped up to a different air, 
a kind of country love song, that he must have 
learned in his youth before he had begun to follow 
the sea. 

So things passed until, the day after the funeral, 
and about three o’clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty 
afternoon, I was standing at the door for a moment, 
full of sad thoughts about my father, when I saw 
some one drawing slowly near along the road. He 
was plainly blind, for he tapped before him with a 
stick, and wore a great green shade over his eyes and 
nose ; and he was hunched, as if with age or weakness, 
and wore a huge old tattered sea cloak with a hood, 
that made him appear positively deformed. I never 
saw in my life a more dreadful looking figure. He 
stopped a little from the inn, and, raising his voice 
in an odd sing-song, addressed the air in front of 
him : — 

“Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, 
who has lost the precious sight of his eyes in the 
gracious defense of his native country, England, and 
God bless King George ! — where or in what part of 
this country he may now be.?” 

“You are at the ‘Admiral Benbow,’ Black Hill 
Cove, my good man,” said I. 

“I hear a voice,” said he — “a young voice. Will 
you give me your hand, my kind young friend, and 
lead me in.?” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


41 


1 held out my hand, and the horrible, soft-spoken, 
eyeless creature gripped it in a moment like a vice. 
I was so much startled that I struggled to withdraw ; 
but the blind man pulled me close up to him with a 
single action of his arm. 

“Now, boy,” he said, “take me in to the captain.” 

“Sir,” said I, “upon my word I dare not.” 

“Oh,” he sneered, “that’s it ! Take me in straight, 
or I’ll break your arm.” 

And he gave it, as he spoke, a wrench, that made 
me cry out. 

“Sir,” said I, “it is for yourself I mean. The cap- 
tain is not what he used to be. He sits with a drawn 
cutlass. Another gentleman ” 

“Come, now, march,” interrupted he; and I never 
heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that 
blind man’s. It cowed me more than the pain ; and 
I began to obey him at once, walking straight in at 
the door and toward the parlor, where our sick old 
buccaneer was sitting, dazed with rum. The blind 
man clung close to me, holding me in one iron fist, 
and leaning almost more of his weight on me than I 
could carry. “Lead me straight up to him, and when 
I’m in view, cry out, ‘Here’s a friend for you. Bill.’ 
If you don’t. I’ll do this and with that he gave me a 
twitch that I thought would have made me faint. Be- 
tween this and that, I was so utterly terrified of the 
blind beggar that I forgot my terror of the captain, 
and as I opened the parlor door, cried out the words 
he had ordered in a trembling voice. 

The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look 
the rum went out of him, and left him staring sober. 
The expression of his face was not so much of terror 
as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise. 


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but I do not believe he had enough force left in his 
body. 

“Now, Bill, sit where you are,” said the beggar. 
“If I can’t see, I can hear a finger stirring. Business 
is business. Hold out your left hand. Boy, take his 
left hand by the wrist, and bring it near to my 
right.” 

.We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him 
pass something from the hollow of the hand that held 
his stick into the palm of the captain’s, which closed 
upon it instantly. 

“And now that’s done,” said the blind man ; and 
at the words he suddenly left hold of me, and, with 
incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out of 
the parlor and into the road, where, as I stood mo- 
tionless, I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping 
into the distance. 

It was some time before either I or the captain 
seemed to gather our senses ; but at length, and about 
at the same moment, I released his wrist, which I was 
still holding, and he drew in his hand and looked 
sharply into the palm. 

“Ten o’clock!” he cried. “Six hours. We’ll do 
them yet and he sprang to his feet. 

Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his 
throat, stood swaying for a moment, and then, with a 
peculiar sound, fell from his whole height face fore- 
most to the floor. 

I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But 
haste was all in vain. The captain had been struck 
dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious thing 
to understand, for I had certainly never liked the 
man, though of late I had begun to pity him, but as 


TREASURE ISLAND 


43 


soon as I saw that he was dead, I burst into a flood 
of tears. It was the second death I had known, and 
the sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart. 


CHAPTER IV 

THE SEA CHEST 

I LOST no time, of course, in telling my mother all 
that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long 
before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and 
dangerous position. Some of the man’s money — if 
he had any — was certainly due to us ; but it was not 
likely that our captain’s shipmates, above all the two 
specimens seen by me, Black Dog and the blind beg- 
gar, would be inclined to give up their booty in pay- 
ment of the dead man’s debts. The captain’s order 
to mount at once and ride for Dr. Livesey would have 
left my mother alone and unprotected, which was not 
to be thought of. Indeed, it seemed impossible for 
either of us to remain much longer in the house : the 
fall of coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of 
the clock, filled us with alarms. The neighborhood, 
to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching foot- 
steps ; and what between the dead body of the captain 
on the parlor floor, and the thought of that detest- 
able blind beggar hovering near at hand, and ready 
to return, there were moments when, as the saying 
goes, I jumped in my skin for terror. Something 
must speedily be resolved upon ; and it occurred to 
us at last to go forth together and seek help in the 
neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. 


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Bareheaded as we were, we ran out at once in the 
gathering evening and the frosty fog. 

The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, 
though out of view, on the other side of the next cove ; 
and what greatly encouraged me, it was in an op- 
posite direction from that whence the blind man had 
made his appearance, and whither he had presumably 
returned. We were not many minutes on the road, 
though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each 
other and hearken. But there was no unusual sound 
— nothing but the low wash of the ripple and the 
croaking of the crows in the w’ood. 

It was already candle-light when we reached the 
hamlet, and I shall never forget how much I was 
cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and windows ; 
but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we 
were likely to get in that quarter. For — you would 
have thought men would have been ashamed of them- 
selves — no soul would consent to return with us to 
the “Admiral Benbo^v.” The more we told of our 
troubles, the more — man, woman, and child — they 
clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of 
Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well 
enough known to some there, and carried a great 
weight of terror. Some of the men who had been to 
field work on the far side of the “Admiral Benbow” 
remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers 
on the road, and, taking them to be smugglers, to 
have bolted away ; and one at least had seen a little 
lugger in what we called Kitt’s Hole. For that 
matter, any one who was a comrade of the captain’s 
was enough to frighten them to death. And the 
short and the long of the matter was, that while we 
could get several who were willing enough to ride to 


TREASURE ISLAND 


45 


Dr. Livesey’s, which lay in another direction, not one 
would help us to defend the inn. 

They say cowardice is infectious ; but then argu- 
ment is on the other hand, a great emboldener; and 
so when each had said his say, my mother made them 
a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money 
that belonged to her fatherless boy ; “if none of the 
rest of you dare,” she said, “Jim and I dare. Back 
we will go, the way we came, and small thanks to you 
big, hulking, chicken-hearted men. We’ll have that 
chest open, if we die for it. And I’ll thank you for 
that bag, Mrs. Crossley, to bring back our lawful 
money in.” 

Of course, I said I would go with my mother ; and 
of course they all cried out at our foolhardiness ; but 
even then not a man would go along with us. All 
they would do was to give me a loaded pistol, lest we 
were attacked ; and to promise to have horses ready 
saddled, in case we were pursued on our return ; 
while one lad was to ride forward to the doctor’s in 
search of armed assistance. 

My heart was beating finely when we two set forth 
in the cold night upon this dangerous venture. A 
full moon was beginning to rise and peered redly 
through the upper edges of the fog, and this in- 
creased our haste, for it was plain, before we came 
forth again, that all would be as bright as day, and 
our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. 
We slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor 
did we see or hear anything to increase our terrors, 
till, to our relief, the door of the “Admiral Benbow” 
had closed behind us. 

I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted 
for a moment in the dark, alone in the house with the 


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dead captain’s body. Then my mother got a candle 
in the bar, and, holding each other’s hands, we ad- 
vanced into the parlor. He lay as we had left him, 
on his back, with his eyes open, and one arm stretched 
out. 

“Draw down the blind, Jim,” whispered my 
mother ; “they might come and watch outside. And 
now,” said she, when I had done so, “we have to get 
the key off that; and who’s to touch it, I should like 
to know!” and she gave a kind of sob as she said the 
words. 

I went down on my knees at once. On the floor 
close to his hand there was a little round of paper, 
blackened on the one side. I could not doubt that 
this was the hlach spot; and taking it up, I found 
written on the other side, in a very good, clear hand, 
this short message: “You have till ten to-night.” 

“He had till ten, mother,” said I; and just as I 
said it, our old clock began striking. This sudden 
noise startled us shockingly ; but the news was good, 
for it was only six. 

“Now, Jim,” she said, “that key.” 

1 felt in his pockets, one after another. A few 
small coins, a thimble, and some thread and big 
needles, a piece of pigtail tobacco bitten away at the 
end, his gully with the crooked handle, a pocket com- 
pass, and a tinder box, were all that they contained, 
and I began to despair. 

“Perhaps it’s round his neck,” suggested my 
mother. 

Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his 
shirt at the neck, and there, sure enough, hanging to 
a bit of tarry string, which I cut with his own gully, 
we found the key. At this triumph we were filled with 


TREASURE ISLAND 


47 


hope, and hurried upstairs, without delay, to the 
little room where he had slept so long, and where his 
box had stood since the day of his arrival. 

It was like any other seaman’s chest on the outside, 
the initial “B.” burned on the top of it with a hot 
iron, and the corners somewhat smashed and broken 
as by long, rough usage. 

“Give me the key,” said my mother; and though 
the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown 
back the lid in a twinkling. 

A strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from the 
interior, but nothing was to be seen on the top ex- 
cept a suit of very good clothes, carefully brushed 
and folded. They had never been worn,' my mother 
said. Under that, the miscellany began — a quad- 
rant, a tin canikin, several sticks of tobacco, two 
brace of very handsome pistols, a piece of bar silver, 
an old Spanish watch and some other trinkets of 
little value and mostly of foreign make, a pair of 
compasses mounted with brass, and five or six curious 
West Indian shells. It has often set me thinking 
since that he should have carried about these shells 
with him in his wandering, guilty, and hunted life. 

In the meantime, we had found nothing of any 
value but the silver and the trinkets, and neither of 
these were in our way. Underneath there was an old 
boat cloak, whitened with sea salt on many a harbor 
bar. My mother pulled it up with impatience, and 
there lay before us, the last things in the chest, a 
bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, 
and a canvas bag, that gave forth, at a touch, the 
jingle of gold. 

“I’ll show these rogues that I’m an honest woman,” 
said my mother. “I’ll have my dues, and not a 


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farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley’s bag.” And 
she began to count over the amount of the captain’s 
score from the sailor’s bag into the one that I was 
holding. 

It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were 
of all countries and sizes — doubloons, and louis- 
d’ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight, and I know 
not what besides, all shaken together at random. 
The guineas, too, were about the scarcest, and it was 
with these only that my mother knew how to make 
her count. 

When we were about halfway through, I suddenly 
put my hand upon her arm; for I had heard in the 
silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my heart into 
my mouth — the tap-tapping of the blind man’s 
stick upon the frozen road. It drew nearer and 
nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Then it 
struck sharp on the inn door, and then we could hear 
the handle being turned, and the bolt rattling as the 
wretched being tried to enter ; and then there was a 
long time of silence both within and without. At last 
the tapping recommenced, and, to our indescribable 
joy and gratitude, died slowly away again until it 
ceased to be heard. 

“^Mother,” said I, “take the whole and let’s be 
going;” for I was sure the bolted door must have 
seemed suspicious, and would bring the whole hornet’s 
nest about our ears ; though how thankful I was that 
I had bolted it, none could tell who had never met 
that terrible blind man. 

But my mother, frightened as she was, would not 
consent to take a fraction more than was due to her, 
and was obstinately unwilling to be content with less. 

It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way ; she 


TREASURE ISLAND 


49 


knew her rights and she would have them; and she 
was still arguing with me, when a little low whistle 
sounded a good way off upon the hill. That was 
enough, and more than enough, for both of us. 

‘T’ll take what I have,” she said, jumping to her 
feet. 

“And I’ll take this to square the count,” said I, 
picking up the oilskin packet. 

Next moment we were both groping downstairs, 
leaving the candle by the empty chest ; and the next 
we had opened the door and were in full retreat. We 
had not started a moment too soon. The fog was 
rapidly dispersing; already the moon shone quite 
clear on the high ground on either side ; and it was 
only in the exact bottom of the dell and round the 
tavern door that a thin veil still hung unbroken 
to conceal the first steps of our escape. Far less than 
halfway to the hamlet, very little beyond the bottom 
of the hill, we must come forth into the moonlight. 
Nor was this all; for the sound of several footsteps 
running came already to our ears, and as we looked 
back in their direction, a light tossing to and fro and 
still rapidly advancing, showed that one of the new^ 
comers carried a lantern. 

“My dear,” said my mother suddenly, “take the 
money and run on. I am going to faint.” 

This was certainly the end for both of us, I 
thought. How I cursed the cowardice of the neigh- 
bors ; how I blamed my poor mother for her honesty 
and her greed, for her past foolhardiness and present 
weakness ! We were just at the little bridge, by good 
fortune; and I helped her, tottering as she was, to 
the edge of the bank, where, sure enough, she gave a 
sigh and fell on my shoulder. I do not know how I 


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found the strength to do it at all, and I am afraid it 
was roughly done ; but I managed to drag her down 
the bank and a little Avay under the arch. Farther I 
could not move her, for the bridge was too low to let 
me do more than crawl beloiw it. So there we had to 
stay — my mother almost entirely exposed, and both 
of us within earshot of the inn. 


CHAPTER V 

THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN 

My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my 
fear; for I could not remain where I was, but crept 
back to the bank again, whence, sheltering my head 
behind a bush of broom, I might command the road 
before our door. I was scarcely in position ere my 
enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them, run- 
ning hard, their feet beating out of time along the 
road, and the man with the lantern some paces in 
front. Three men ran together, hand in hand; and 
I made out, even through the mist, that the middle 
man of this trio was the blind beggar. The next 
moment his voice showed me that I was right. 

“Down with the door !” he cried. 

“Ay, ay, sir!” answered two or three; and a rush 
was made upon the “Admiral Benbow,” the lantern 
bearer following; and then I could see them pause, 
and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they 
were surprised to find the door open. But the pause 
was brief, for the blind man again issued his com- 
mands. His voice sounded louder and higher, as if 
he were afire with eagerness and rage. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


51 


“In, in, in!” he shouted, and cursed- them for their 
delay. 

Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remain- 
ing on the road with the formidable beggar. There 
was a pause, then a cry of surprise, and then a voice 
shouting from the house : — 

“Bill’s dead I” 

But the blind man swore at them again for their 
delay. 

“Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and 
the rest of you aloft and get the chest,” he cried. 

I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, 
so that the house must have shook with it. Promptly 
afterward, fresh sounds of astonishment arose ; the 
window of the captain’s room was thrown open wdth 
a slam and a jingle of broken glass; and a man 
leaned out into the moonlight, head and shoulders, 
and addressed the blind beggar on the road below 
him. 

“Pew,” he cried, “they’ve been before us. Some 
one’s turned the chest out alow and aloft.” 

“Is it there roared Pew. 

“The money’s there.” 

The blind man cursed the money. 

“Flint’s fist, I mean,” he cried. 

“We don’t see it here nohow,” returned the man. 

“Here, you below there, is it on Bill.?” cried the 
blind man again. 

At that, another fellow, probably he who had re- 
mained below to search the captain’s body, came to 
the door of the inn. “Bill’s been overhauled 
a’ready,” said he, “nothin’ left.” ^ 

“It’s these people of the inn — it’s that boy. I 
wish I had put his eyes out!” cried the blind man. 


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Pew. “They were here no time ago — they had the 
door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 
’em.” 

“Sure enough, they left their glim here,” said the 
fellow from the window. 

“Scatter and find ’em ! Rout the house out !” 
reiterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the road. 

Then there followed a great to-do through all our 
old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture 
thrown over, doors kicked in, until the very rocks 
reechoed, and the men came out again, one after 
another, on the road, and declared that we were no- 
where to be found. And just then the same whistle 
that had alarmed my mother and myself over the 
dead captain’s money was once more clearly audible 
through the night, but this time twice repeated. I 
had thought it to be the blind man’s trumpet, so to 
speak, summoning his crew to the assault ; but I now 
found that it was a signal from the hillside toward 
the hamlet, and, from its effect upon the buccaneers, 
a signal to warn them of approaching danger. 

“There’s Dirk again,” said one. “Twice! We’ll 
have to budge, mates.” 

“Budge, you skulk I” cried Pew. “Dirk was a fool 
and a coward from the first — you wouldn’t mind 
him. They must be close; they can’t be far; you 
have your hands on it. Scatter and look for them, 
dogs ! Oh, shiver my soul,” he cried, “if I had eyes 1” 

This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for 
two of the fellows began to look here and there 
among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, 
and with half an eye to their own danger all the 
time, while the rest stood irresolute on the road. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


53 


“You have your hands on thousands, you fools, 
and you hang a leg! You’d be as rich as kings if you 
could find it, and you know it’s here, and you stand 
there skulking. There wasn’t one of you dared face 
Bill, and I did it — a blind man I And I’m to lose 
my chance for you ! I’m to be a poor, crawling beg- 
gar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a 
coach! If you had the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit 
you would catch them still.” 

“Hang it. Pew, we’ve got the doubloons !” grum- 
bled one. 

“They might have hid the blessed thing,” said 
another. “Take the Georges, Pew, and don’t stand 
here squalling.” 

Squalling was the word for it. Pew’s anger rose so 
high at these objections; till at last, his passion 
completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them 
right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded 
heavily on more than one. 

These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind mis- 
creant, threatened him in horrid terms, and tried in 
vain to catch the stick and wrest it from his grasp. 

This quarrel was the saving of us ; for while it was 
still raging, another sound came from the top of 
the hill on the side of the hamlet — the tramp of 
horses galloping. Almost at the same time a pistol 
shot, flash and report, came from the hedge side. 
And that was plainly the last signal of danger ; for 
the buccaneers turned at once and ran, separating 
in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one 
slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a 
minute not a sign of them remained but Pew. Him 
they had deserted, whether in sheer panic or out of 
revenge for his ill words and blows, I know not ; but 


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there he remained behind, tapping up and down the 
road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his 
comrades. Finally he took the wrong turn, and ran 
a few steps past me, toward the hamlet, crying: — 

“Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk,” and other names, 
“you won’t leave old Pew, mates — not old Pew !” 

Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and 
four or five riders came in sight in the moonlight, 
and swept at full gallop down the slope. 

At this Pew’ saw his error, turned with a scream, 
and ran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. 
But he w’as on his feet again in a second, and made 
another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under 
the nearest of the coming horses. 

The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down 
went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night ; 
and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and 
passed b3^ He fell on his side, then gently collapsed 
upon his face, and moved no more. 

I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They 
were pulling up, at any rate, horrified at the ac- 
cident ; and I soon saw what they were. One, tailing 
out behind the rest, was a lad that had gone from the 
hamlet to Dr. Livesey’s ; the rest were revenue 
officers, whom he had met by the way, and with whom 
he had had the intelligence to return at once. Some 
news of the lugger in Kitt’s Hole had found its w'ay 
to Supervisor Dance, and set him forth that night 
in our direction, and to that circumstance my mother 
and I owed our preservation from death. 

Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, 
when we had carried her up to the hamlet, a little 
cold water and salts and that soon brought her back 
again, and she was none the worse for her terror. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


55 


though she still continued to deplore the balance of 
the money. In the meantime the supervisor rode on, 
as fast as he could, to Kitt’s Hole; but his men had 
to dismount and grope down the dingle, leading, and 
sometimes supporting, their horses, and in continual 
fear of ambushes ; so it was no great matter for 
surprise that when they got down to the Hole the 
lugger was already under way, though still close in. 
He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to keep 
out of the moonlight, or he would get some lead in 
him, and at the same time a bullet whistled close by 
his arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled the point 
and disappeared. Mr. Dance stood there, as he 
said, “like a fish out of water,” and all he could do 

was to despatch a man to B to warn the cutter. 

“And that,” said he, “is just about as good as 
nothing. They’ve got off clean, and there’s an end. 
Only,” he added, “I’m glad I trod on Master Pew’s 
corns for by this time he had heard my story. 

I went back with him to the “Admiral Benbow,” 
and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of 
smash; the very clock had been thrown down by 
these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother 
and myself ; and though nothing had actually been 
taken away except the captain’s money-bag and a 
little silver from the till, I could see at once that 
we were ruined. Mr. Dance could make nothing of 
the scene. 

“They got the money, you say.? Well, then, 
Hawkins, what in fortune were they after.? More 
money, I suppose.?” 

“No, sir; not money, I think,” replied I. “In 
fact, sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast- 


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pocket ; and, to tell you the truth, I should like to 
get it put in safety.” 

“To be sure, .boy; quite right,” said he. “I’ll take 
it, if you like.” 

. “I thought, perhaps. Dr. Livesey ” I began. 

“Perfectly right,” he interrupted, very cheerily, 
“perfectly right — a gentleman and a magistrate. 
And, now I come to think of it, I might as well ride 
round there myself and report to him or squire. 
Master Pew’s dead, when all’s done ; not that I regret 
it, but he’s dead, you see, and people will make it out 
against an officer of his Majesty’s revenue, if make 
it out they can. Now, I’ll tell you, Hawkins; if you 
like. I’ll take you along.” 

I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked 
back to the hamlet where the horses were. By the 
time I had told mother of my purpose they were all 
in the saddle. 

“Dogger,” said Mr. Dance, “you have a good 
horse ; take up this lad behind you.” 

As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger’s 
belt, the supervisor gave the word, and the party 
struck out at a bouncing trot on the road to Dr. 
Livesey’s house. 


CHAPTER VI 

THE captain’s PAPERS 

We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before 
Dr. Livesey’s door. The house was all dark to the 
front. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


57 


Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and 
Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door 
was opened almost at once by the maid. 

“Is Dr. Livesey in.'”’ I asked. 

No, she said; he had come home in the afternoon, 
but had gone up to the' Hall to dine and pass the 
evening with the squire. 

“So there Ave go, boys,” said Mr. Dance. 

This time, as the distance was short, I did not 
mount, but ran with Dogger’s stirrup leather to the 
lodge gates, and up the long, leafless, moonlit avenue 
to where the Avhite line of the Hall buildings looked 
on either hand on great old gardens. Here Mr. 
Dance dismounted, and, taking me along with him, 
was admitted at a word into the house. 

The servant led us down a matted passage, and 
showed us at the end into a great library, all lined 
with bookcases and busts upon the top of them, 
where the squire and Dr. Livesey sat, pipe in hand, 
on either side of a bright fire. 

I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He 
was a tall man, over six feet high, and broad in pro- 
portion, and he had a bluff*, rough-and-ready face, 
all roughened and reddened and lined in his long 
travels. His eyebrows were very black, and moved 
readily, and this gave him a look of some temper, not 
bad, you would say, but quick and high. 

“Come in, Mr. Dance,” says he, very stately and 
condescending. 

“Good evening. Dance,” says the doctor, with a 
nod. “And good evening to you, friend Jim. What 
good wind brings you here.?” 

The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and 
told his story like a lesson ; and you should have seen 


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how the two gentlemen leaned forward and looked at 
each other, and forgot to smoke in their surprise 
and interest. When they heard how my mother went 
back to the inn, Dr. Livesey fairly slapped his thigh, 
and the squire cried “Bravo !” and broke his long 
pipe against the grate. Long before it was done, 
Mr. Trelawney (that, you will remember, was the 
squire’s name) had got up from his seat, and was 
striding about the room, and the doctor, as if to hear 
the better, had taken ofF his powdered wig, and sat 
there, looking very strange indeed with his o^vn 
close-cropped, black poll. 

At last Mr. Dance finished the story. 

“Mr. Dance,” said the squire, “you are a very 
noble fellow. And as for riding down that black, 
atrocious miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue, 
sir, like stamping on a cockroach. This lad Haw- 
kins is a trump, I perceive. Hawkins, will you ring 
that bell.P Mr. Dance must have some ale.” 

“And so, Jim,” said the doctor, “you have the 
thing that they were after, have you.^” 

“Here it is, sir,” said I, and gave him the oilskin 
packet. 

The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were 
itching to open it ; but, instead of doing that, he put 
it quietly in the pocket of his coat. 

“Squire,” said he, “when Dance has had his ale he 
must, of course, be off on his Majesty’s service; but 
I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my 
house, and, with your permission, I propose we 
should have up the cold pie, and let him sup.” 

“As you will, Livesey,” said the squire ; “Hawkins 
has earned better than cold pie.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


59 


So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a 
side table, and I made a hearty supper, for I was as 
hungry as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was further com- 
plimented, and at last dismissed. 

“And now, squire,” said the doctor. 

“And now, Livesey,” said the squire, in the same 
breath. 

“One at a time, one at a time,” laughed Dr. Live- 
sey. “You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?” 

“Pleard of him !” cried the squire. “Heard of him, 
you say ! He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that 
sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The 
Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him, that, 
I tell you, sir, I was sometimes proud he was an 
Englishman. I’ve seen his topsails with these eyes, 
off Trinidad, and the cowardly son of a rum- 
puncheon that I sailed with put back — put back, 
sir, into Port of Spain.” 

“Well, I’ve heard of him myself, in England,” 
said the doctor. “But the point is, had he money?” 

“Money !” cried the squire. “Have you heard the 
story? What were these villains after but money? 
What do they care for but money? For what would 
they risk their rascal carcasses but money?” 

“That we shall soon know,” replied the doctor. 
“But you are so confoundedly hot-headed and ex- 
clamatory that I cannot get a word in. What I 
want to know is this: Supposing that I have here 
in my pocket some clue to where Flint buried his 
treasure, will that treasure amount to much?” 

“Amount, sir!” cried the squire. “It will amount 
to this : if we have the clue you talk about, I fit out 
a ship in Bristol dock, and take you and Hawkins 


60 


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here along, and I’ll have that treasure if I search a 
year.” 

“Very well,” said the doctor. “Now, then, if Jim 
is agreeable, we’ll open the packet;” and he laid it 
before him on the table. 

The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had 
to get out his instrument case, and cut the stitches 
with his medical scissors. It contained two things — 
a book and a sealed paper. 

“First of all we’ll try the book,” observed the 
doctor. 

The squire and I were both peering over his 
shoulder as he opened it, for Dr. Livesey had kindly 
motioned me to come round from the side table, where 
I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search. 
On the first page there were only some scraps of 
writing, such as a man with a pen in his hand might 
make for idleness or practice. One was the same as 
the tattoo mark, “Billy Bones his fancy then there 
was “Mr. W. Bones, mate.” “No more rum.” “Off 
Palm Key he got itt;” and some other snatches, 
mostly single words and unintelligible. I could not 
help wondering who it was that had “got itt,” and 
what “itt” was that he got. A knife in his back as 
like as not. 

“Not much instruction there,” said Dr. Livesey, 
as he passed on. 

The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a 
curious series of entries. There was a date at one 
end of the line and at the other a sum of money, as 
in common account books ; but instead of explana- 
tory writing, only a varying number of crosses be- 
tween the two. On the 12th of June, 1745, for 
instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly become 


tr?:asure island 


61 


due to some one, and there was nothing but six 
crosses to explain the cause. In a few cases, to be 
sure, the name of a place would be added, as “OfFe 
Caraccas or a mere entry of latitude and longitude, 
as “62° 17' 20", 19° 2' 40".” 

The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the 
amount of the separate entries growing larger as 
time went on, and at the end a grand total had been 
made out after five or six wrong additions, and these 
words appended, “Bones, his pile.” 

“I can’t make head or tail of this,” said Dr. Live- 
sey. 

“The thing is as clear as noonday,” cried the 
squire. “This is the black-hearted hound’s account 
book. These crosses stand for the names of ships or 
towns that they sank or plundered. The sums are 
the scoundrel’s share, and where he feared an am- 
biguity you see he added something clearer. ‘OfFe 
Caraccas,’ now; you see, here was some unhappy 
vessel boarded off that coast. God help the poor 
souls that manned her — coral long ago.” 

“Right !” said the doctor. “See what it is to be a 
traveler. Right! And the amounts increase, you 
see, as he rose in rank.” 

There was little else in the volume but a few 
bearings of places noted in the blank leaves toward 
the end, and a table for reducing French, English, 
and Spanish moneys to a common value. 

“Thrifty man I” cried the doctor. “He wasn’t the 
one to be cheated.” 

“And now,” said the squire, “for the other.” 

The paper had been sealed in several places with a 
thimble by way of seal ; the very thimble, perhaps, 
that I had found in the captain’s pocket. The doc- 


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tor opened the seals with great care, and there fell 
out the map of an island, with latitude and longitude, 
soundings, names of hills, and bays and inlets, and 
every particular that would be needed to bring a ship 
to a safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about 
nine miles long and five across, shaped, you might 
say, like a fat dragon standing up, and had two fine 
landlocked harbors, and a hill in the center part 
marked “The Spyglass.” There were several ad- 
ditions of a later date ; but, above all, three crosses 
of red ink — two on the north part of the island, one 
in the southwest, and, beside this last, in the same 
red ink, in a small, neat hand, very different from the 
captain’s tottery characters, these words : — “Bulk 
of treasure here.” 

Over on the back the same hand had written this 
further information : — 

“Tall tree, Spyglass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N. 

N. E, 

“Skeleton Island, E. S. E. and by E. 

“Ten feet. 

“The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the 
trend of the east hiunmock, ten fathoms south of the black 
crag with the face on it. 

“The arms are easy found, in the sand hill, N. point of north 
inlet cape, bearing E. and quarter N. J. F.” 

That was all; but brief as it was, and, to me, in- 
comprehensible, it filled the squire and Dr. Livesey 
with delight. 

“Livesey,” said the squire, “you will give up this 
wretched practice at once. To-morrow I start for 
Bristol. In three weeks’ time — three weeks ! — two 
weeks — ten days — we’ll have the best ship, sir, and 
the choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall come 


TREASURE ISLAND 


63 


as cabin boy. You’ll make a famous cabin boy, Haw- 
kins. You, Livesey, are ship’s doctor; I am admiral. 
We’ll take Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter. We’ll have 
favorable winds, a quick passage, and not the least 
difficulty in finding the spot, and money to eat — to 
roll in — to play duck and drake with ever after.” 

“Trelawney,” said the doctor, “I’ll go with you; 
and. I’ll go bail for it, so will Jim, and be a credit 
to the undertaking. There’s only one man I’m afraid 
of.” 

“And who’s that.?” cried the squire. “Name the 
dog, sir!” 

“You,” replied the doctor; “for you cannot hold 
your tongue. We are not the only men who know of 
this paper. These fellows who attacked the inn to- 
night — bold, desperate blades, for sure — and the 
rest who stayed aboard that lugger, and more, I dare 
say, not far off, are, one and all, through thick and 
thin, bound that they’ll get that money. We must 
none of us go alone till we get to sea. Jim and I 
shall stick together in the meanwhile ; you’ll take 
Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol, and, 
from first to last, not one of us must breathe a word 
of w’hat we’ve found.” 

“Livesey,” returned the squire, “you are always 
in the right of it. I’ll be as silent as the grave.” 


PART II 




THE SEA COOK 


CHAPTER VII 

I GO TO BRISTOL 

It was longer than the squire imagined ere we were 
ready for the sea, and none of our first plans — not 
even Dr. Livesey’s of keeping me beside him — could 
be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go 
to London for a physician to take charge of his 
practice ; the squire was hard at work at Bristol ; and 
I lived on at the Hall under the charge of old Red- 
ruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of 
sea dreams and the most charming anticipations of 
strange islands and adventures. I brooded by the 
hour together over the map, all the details of which 
I well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the house- 
keeper’s room, I approached that island, in my fancy, 
from every possible direction; I explored every acre 
of its surface ; I climbed a thousand times to that tall 
hill they call the Spyglass, and from the top en- 
joyed the most wonderful and changing prospects. 
Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with 
whom we fought ; sometimes full of dangerous animals 
that hunted us ; but in all my fancies nothing oc- 
curred to me so strange and tragic as our actual 
adventures. 


64 


TREASURE ISLAND 


65 


So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came 
a letter addressed to Dr. Lh^esej, with this addition, 
“To be opened, in the case of his absence, by Tom 
Redruth, or young Hawkins.” Obeying this order, 
we found, or rather, I found — for the gamekeeper 
was a poor hand at reading anything but print — 
the following important news : — 

“Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17 — . 

“Dear Livesey, — As I do not know whether you are at 
the Hall, or still in London, I send this in double to both 
places. 

“The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for 
sea. You never imagined a sweeter schooner — a child might 
sail her — two hundred tons ; name, Hispaniola. 

“I got her through my old friend. Blandly, who has proved 
himself throughout the most surprising trump. The admirable 
fellow literally slaved in my interest, and so, I may say, did 
every one in Bristol, as soon as they got wind of the port we 
sailed for — treasure, I mean.” 

“Redruth,” said I, interrupting the letter, “Dr. 
Livesey will not like that. The squire has been talk- 
ing, after all.” 

“Well, who’s a better right .^” growled the game- 
keeper. “A pretty rum go if squire ain’t to talk for 
Dr. Livesey, I should think.” 

At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, and 
read straight on : — 

“Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and by the most 
admirable management got her for the merest trifle. There 
is a class of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced against 
Blandly. They go the length of declaring that this honest 
creature would do anything for money, that the Hispaniola 
belonged to him, and that he sold it to me absurdly high — the 
most transparent calumnies. None of them dare, however, to 
deny the merits of the ship. 


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“So far there was not a hitch. The work-people, to be sure 
— riggers and what not — were most annoyingly slow ; but 
time cured that. It was the crew that troubled me. 

“I wished a round score of men — in case of natives, bucca- 
neers, or the odious French — and I had the worry of the deuce 
itself to find so much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable 
stroke of fortune brought me the very man that I required. 

“I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest accident, I 
fell in talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a 
public house, knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost 
his health ashore, and wanted a good berth as cook to get to 
sea again. He had hobbled down there that morning, he said, 
to get a smell of the salt. 

“I was monstrously touched — so would you have been — 
and out of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be the ship’s 
cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and has lost a leg; but 
that I regarded as a recommendation, since he lost it in his 
country’s service, under the immortal Hawke. He has no 
pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable age we live in! 

“Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a 
crew I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got 
together in a few days a company of the toughest old salts 
imaginable — not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, 
of the most indomitable spirit. I declare we could fight a 
frigate. 

“Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I 
had already engaged. He showed me in a moment that they 
were just the sort of fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an 
adventure of importance. 

“I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like 
a bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment 
till I hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. 
Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea 
that has turned my head. So now, Livesey, come post; do not 
lose an hour, if you respect me. 

“Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with 
Redruth for a guard ; and then both come full speed to Bristol. 

John Trelawney. 

“Postscript . — I did not teU you that Blandly, who, by the 
way, is to send a consort after us if we don’t turn up by the 
end of August, had found an admirable fellow for sailing 


TREASURE ISLAND 


67 


master — a stiff man, which I regret, but, in all other respects 
a treasure. Long John Silver unearthed a very competent 
man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have a boatswain 
who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-^’-war fashion on 
board the good ship Hispaniola. 

“I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I 
know of my own knowledge that he has a banker’s account, 
which has never been overdrawn. He leaves ^his wife to manage 
the inn; and as she is a woman of color, a pair of old bach- 
elors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it is the 
wife, quite as much as the health, that sends him back to 
roving. J. T. 

“P. P. S. — Hawkins may stay one night with his mother. 

“J. T.” 

You can fancy the excitement into which that 
letter put me. I was half beside myself with glee; 
and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth, 
who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any 
of the under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed 
places with him ; hut such was not the squire’s 
pleasure, and the squire’s pleasure was like law 
among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would 
have dared so much as even to grumble. 

The next morning he and I set out on foot for the 
“Admiral Benbow,” and there I found my mother in 
good health and spirits. The captain, who had so 
long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone 
where the wicked cease from troubling. The squire 
had had everything repaired, and the public rooms 
and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture 
— above all a beautiful armchair for mother in the 
bar. He had found her a boy as an apprentice also, 
so that she should not want help while I was gone. 

It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for 
the first time, my situation. I had thought up to 


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that moment of the adventures before me, not at all 
of the home that I was leaving; and now, at sight of 
this clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my 
place beside my mother, I had my first attack of 
tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog’s life ; for 
as he was new to the work, I had a hundred op- 
portunities of setting him right and putting him 
down, and I was not slow to profit by them. 

The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, 
Redruth and I were afoot again, and on the road. 
I said good-by to mother and the cove where I had 
lived since I was born, and the dear old “Admiral 
Benbow” — since he was repainted, no longer quite 
so dear. One of my last thoughts was of the captain, 
who had so often strode along the beach with his 
cocked hat, his sabre-cut cheek, and his old brass 
telescope. Next moment we had turned the corner, 
and my home was out of sight. 

The mail picked us up about dusk at the “Royal 
George” on the heath. I was wedged in between 
Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of 
the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have 
dozed a great deal from the very first, and then slept 
like a log up hill and down dale through stage after 
stage ; for when I was awakened, at last, it was by a 
punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes, to find that 
we were standing still before a large building in a 
city street, and that the day had already broken a 
long time. 

“Where are we.?” I asked. 

“Bristol,” said Tom. “Get doW.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


69 


Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an 
inn far down the docks, to superintend the work upon 
the schooner. Thither we had now to walk, and our 
way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and 
beside the great multitude of ships of all sizes and 
rigs and nations. In one, sailors were singing at 
their work; in another, there were men aloft, high 
over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no 
thicker than a spider’s. Though I had lived by the 
shore all my life, I seemed never to have been near 
the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was 
something new. I saw the most wonderful figure- 
heads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw, 
besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears, 
and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, 
and their swaggering, clumsy sea walk ; and if I had 
seen as many kings or archbishops I could not have 
been more delighted. 

And I was going to sea myself ; to sea in a 
schooner, with a piping boatswain, and pig-tailed 
singing seamen ; to sea, bound for an unknown island, 
and to seek for buried treasures ! 

While I was still in this delightful dream, we came 
suddenly in front of a large inn, and met Squire 
Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea officer, in stout 
blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on 
his face, and a capital imitation of a sailor’s walk. 

“Here you are,” he cried,' “and the doctor came 
last night from London. Bravo ! the ship’s company 
complete !” 

“Oh, sir,” cried I, “when do we sail?” 

“Sail!” says he. “We sail to-morrow!” 


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THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


CHAPTER VIII 

AT THE SIGN OF THE “SPYGEASS” 

When I had done breakfasting the squire gave me 
a note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the 
“Spyglass,” and told me I should easily find the 
place by following the line of the docks, and keeping 
a bright lookout for a little tavern with a large brass 
telescope for sign. I set off, overjoyed at this op- 
portunity to see some more of the ships and seamen, 
and picked my way among a great crowd of people 
and carts and bales, for the dock was now at its 
busiest, until I found the tavern in question. 

It was a bright enough little place of entertain- 
ment. The sign was newly painted ; the windows had 
neat red curtains ; the floor was cleanly sanded. 
There was a street on either side, and an open door 
on both, which made the large, low room pretty clear 
to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke. 

The customers were mostly seafaring men; and 
they talked so loudly that I hung at the door, almost 
afraid to enter. 

As I was waiting, a man came out of the side room, 
and, at a glance, I was sure he must be Long John. 
His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under 
the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he man- 
aged with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon 
it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a 
face as big as a ham — plain and pale, but intelligent 
and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful 
spirits, whistling as he moved about among the 
tables, with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder 
for the more favored of his guests. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


71 


Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first 
mention of Long John in Squire Trelawney’s letter, 
I had taken a fear in my mind that he might prove 
to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched 
for so long at the old “Benbow.” But one look at 
the man before me was enough. I had seen the cap- 
tain, and Black Dog, and the blind man Pew, and I 
thought I knew what a buccaneer was like — a very 
different creature, according to me, from this clean 
and pleasant-tempered landlord. 

1 plucked up courage at once, crossed the thres- 
hold, and walked right up to the man where he stood, 
propped on his crutch, talking to a customer. 

“Mr. Silver, sir.^” I asked, holding out the note. 

“Yes, my lad,” said he; “such is my name, to be 
sure. And who may you be.?” And then as he saw 
the squire’s letter, he seemed to me to give something 
almost like a start. 

“Oh !” said he, quite loud, and offering his hand, 
“I see. You are our new cabin boy; pleased I am to 
see you.” 

And he took my hand in his large firm grasp. 

Just then one of the customers at the far side rose 
suddenly and made for the door. It was close by 
him, and he was out in the street in a moment. But 
his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recognized 
him at a glance. It was the tallow-faced man, want- 
ing two fingers, who had come first to the “Admiral 
Benbow.” 

“Oh,” I cried, “stop him! it’s Black Dog!” 

“I don’t care two coppers who he is,” cried Silver. 
“But he hasn’t paid his score. Harry, run and catch 
him.” 


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One of the others who was nearest the door leaped 
up, and started in pursuit. 

“If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score,” 
cried Silver ; and then, relinquishing my hand — 
“Who did you say he was ?” he asked. “Black what 

“Dog, sir,” said I. “Has Mr. Trelawney not told 
you of the buccaneers He was one of them.” 

“So.?” cried Silver. “In my house! Ben, run and 
help Harry. One of those swabs, was he? Was that 
you drinking with him, Morgan ? Step up here.” 

The man whom he called Morgan — an old, gray- 
haired, mahogany-faced sailor — came forward 
pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid. 

“Now, Morgan,” said Long John, very sternly; 
“you never clapped your eyes on that Black — Black 
Dog before, did you, now?” 

“Not I, sir,” said Morgan, with a salute. 

“You didn’t know his name, did you?” 

“No, sir.” 

“By the powers, Tom Morgan, it’s as good for 
you !” exclaimed the landlord. “If you had been 
mixed up with the like of that, you would never have 
put another foot in my house, you may lay to that. 
And what was he saying to you?” 

“I don’t rightly know, sir,” answered Morgan. 

“Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a 
blessed deadeye?” cried Long John. “Don’t rightly 
know, don’t you! Perhaps you don’t happen to 
rightly know who you was speaking to, perhaps? 
Come, now, what was he jawing — v’ages, cap’ns, 
ships ? Pipe up ! What was it ?” 

“We was a-talkin’ of keelhauling,” answered 
Morgan. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


73 


“Keelhauling, was you? and a mighty suitable 
thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to 
your place for a lubber, Tom.” 

And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat. Silver 
added to me in a confidential whisper, that was very 
flattering, as I thought: 

“He’s quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on’y 
stupid. And now,” he ran on again, aloud, “let’s 
see — Black Dog? No, I don’t know the name, not I. 
Yet I kind of think I’ve — yes, I’ve seen the swab. 
He used to come here with a blind beggar, he used.” 

“That he did, you may be sure,” said I. “I knew 
that blind man, too. His name was Pew.” 

“It was !” cried Silver, now quite excited. “Pew ! 
That were his name for certain. Ah, he looked a 
shark, he did! If we run down this Black Dog, now, 
there’ll be news for Cap’n Trelawney! Ben’s a good 
runner ; few seamen run better than Ben. He should 
run him down, hand over hand, by the powers I He 
talked o’ keelhauling, did he ? Vll keelhaul him !” 

All the time he was jerking out these phrases he 
was stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch, 
slapping tables with his hand, and giving such a show 
of excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey 
judge or a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had 
been thoroughly reawakened on finding Black Dog 
at the “Spyglass,” and I watched the cook narrowly. 
But he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever 
for me, and by the time the two men had come back 
out of breath, and confessed that they had lost the 
track in a crowd, had been scolded like thieves, I 
would have gone bail for the innocence of Long John 
Silver. 


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“See here, now, Hawkins,” said he, “here’s a blessed 
hard thing on a man like me, now, ain’t it? There’s 
Cap’n Trelawney — what’s he to think ? Here I 
have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in 
my own house, drinking of my own rum! Here you 
comes and tells me of it plain ; and here I let him give 
us all the slip before my blessed deadlights 1 Now, 
Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap’n. You’re 
a lad, you are, but you’re as smart as paint. I see 
that when you first came in. Now, here it is : What 
could I do, with this old timber I hobble on? When 
I was an A B master mariner I’d have come up along- 
side of him, hand over hand, and broached him to in 
a brace of old shakes, I would; but now ” 

And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw 
dropped as though he had remembered something. 

“The score,” he burst out. “Three goes o’ rum! 
Why, shiver my timbers, if I hadn’t forgotten my 
score !” 

And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears 
ran down his cheeks. I could not help joining; and 
we laughed together, peal after peal, until the tavern 
rang again. 

“Why, what a precious old sea calf I am !” he said, 
at last, wiping his cheeks. “You and me should get 
on well, Hawkins, for I’ll take my davy I should be 
rated ship’s boy. But come, now, stand by to go 
about. This won’t do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. 
I’ll put on my old cocked hat, and step along of you 
to Cap’n Trelawney, and report this here affair. 
For, mind you, it’s serious, young Hawkins ; and 
neither you nor me’s come out of it with what I 
should make so bold as to call credit. Nor you 
neither, says you ; not smart — none of the pair of 


TREASURE ISLAND 


75 


US smart. But dash my buttons! that was a good 
’un about my score.” 

And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, 
that though I did not see the joke as he did, I was 
again obliged to join him in his mirth. 

On our little walk along the quays, he made himself 
the most interesting companion, telling me about the 
different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, 
and nationality, explaining the work that was going 
forward — how one was discharging, another taking 
in cargo, and a third making ready for sea ; and every 
now and then telling me some little anecdote of ships 
or seamen, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had 
learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one 
of the best of possible shipmates. 

When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Live- 
sey were seated together, finishing a quart of ale with 
a toast in it, before they should go aboard the 
schooner on a visit of inspection. 

Long John told the story from first to last, with a 
great deal of spirit and the most perfect truth. 
“That was how it were, now, weren’t it, Hawkins.?” 
he would say, now and again, and I could always bear 
him entirely out. 

The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had 
got away ; but we all agreed there was nothing to be 
done, and after he had been complimented. Long 
John took up his crutch and departed. 

“All hands aboard by four this afternoon,” 
shouted the squire after him. 

“Ay, ay, sir,” cried the cook, in the passage. 

“Well, squire,” said Dr. Livesey, “I don’t put 
much faith in your discoveries, as a general thing; 
but I will say this, John Silver suits me.” 


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“The man’s a perfect trump,” declared the squire. 
“And now,” added the doctor, “Jim may come on 
board with us, may he not.^” 

“To be sure he may,” says squire. “Take your 
hat, Hawkins, and we’ll see the ship.” 


CHAPTER IX 

POWDEE AND AEMS 

The Hispaniola lay some way out, and we went 
under the figureheads and round the sterns of many 
other ships, and their cables sometimes grated under- 
neath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. At 
last, however, we got alongside, and were met and 
saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. 
Arrow, a brown old sailor, with earrings in his ears 
and a squint. He and the squire were very thick and 
friendly, but I soon observed that things were not 
the same between Mr. Trelawney and the captain. 

This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed 
angry with everything on board, and was soon to tell 
us why, for we had hardly got down into the cabin 
when a sailor followed us. 

“Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you,” 
said he. 

“I am always at the captain’s orders. Show him 
in,” said the squire. 

The captain who was close behind his messenger 
entered at once, and shut the door behind him. 

“Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? 
All well, I hope ; all shipshape and seaworthy ?” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


77 


“Well, sir,” said the captain, “better speak plain, 
I believe, even at the risk of offense. I don’t like this 
cruise; I don’t like the men; and I don’t like my 
officer. That’s short and sweet.” 

“Perhaps, sir, you don’t like the ship.?” inquired 
the squire, very angry, as I could see. 

“I can’t speak as to that, sir, not having seen her 
tried,” said the captain. “She seems a clever craft; 
more I can’t say.” 

“Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, 
either.?” says the squire. 

But here Dr. Livesey cut in. 

“Stay a bit,” said he, “stay a bit. No use of such 
questions as that but to produce ill feeling. The 
captain has said too much or he has said too little, 
and I’m bound to say that I require an explanation of 
his words. You don’t, you say, like this cruise. Now, 
why .?” 

“I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, 
to sail this ship for that gentleman where he should 
bid me,” said the captain. “So far so good. But 
now I find that every man before the mast knows 
more than I do. I don’t call that fair, now, do you?” 

“No,” said Dr. Livesey, “I don’t.” 

“Next,” said the captain, “I learn we are going 
after treasure — hear it from my own hands, mind 
you. Now, treasure is ticklish work; I don’t like 
treasure voyages on any account ; and I don’t like 
them, above all, when they are secret, and when (beg- 
ging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the secret has 
been told to the parrot.” 

“Silver’s parrot?” asked the squire. 

“It’s a way of speaking,” said the captain. 
“Blabbed, I mean. It’s my belief neither of you 


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gentlemen know what you are about; but I’ll tell you 
my way of it — life or death, and a close run.” 

“That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough,” 
replied Dr. Livesey. “We take the risk; but we are 
not so ignorant as you believe us. Next, you say 
you don’t like the crew. Are they not good seamen 

“I don’t like them, sir,” returned Captain Smollett. 
“And I think I should have had the choosing of my 
own hands, if you go to that.” 

“Perhaps you should,” replied the doctor. “My 
friend should, perhaps, have taken you along with 
him; but the slight, if there be one, was uninten- 
tional. And you don’t like Mr. Arrow.?” 

“I don’t, sir. I believe he’s a good seaman; but 
he’s too free with the crew to be a good officer. A 
mate should keep himself to himself — shouldn’t 
drink with the men before the mast !” 

“Do you mean he drinks.?” cried the squire. 

“No, sir,” replied the captain; “only that he’s too 
familiar.” 

“Well, now, and the short and long of it, cap- 
tain?” asked the doctor. “Tell us what you want.” 

“Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on 
this cruise.?” 

“Like iron,” answered the squire. 

“Very good,” said the captain. “Then, as you’ve 
heard me very patiently, saying things I could not 
prove, hear me a few words more. They are putting 
the powder and the arms in the forehold. Now, you 
have a good place under the cabin ; why not put 
them there? — first point. Then you are bringing 
four of 3mur own people with you, and they tell me 
some of them are to be berthed forward. Why not 


TREASURE ISLAND 


79 


give them the berths here beside the cabin? — second 
point.” 

“Any more?” asked Mr. Trelawney. 

“One more,” said the captain. “There’s been too 
much blabbing already.” 

“Far too much,” agreed the doctor. 

“I’ll tell you what I’ve heard myself,” continued 
Captain Smollett : “that you have a map of an 
island ; that there’s crosses on the map to show where 
treasure is ; and that the island lies — ” And then he 
named the latitude and longitude exactly. 

“I never told that,” cried the squire, “to a soul!” 

“The hands know it, sir,” returned the captain. 

“Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins,” 
cried the squire. 

“It doesn’t much matter who it was,” replied the 
doctor. And I could see that neither he nor the 
captain paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney’s pro- 
testations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so loose 
a talker ; yet in this case I believe he was really right, 
and that nobody had told the situation of the island. 

“Well, gentlemen,” continued the captain, “I don’t 
know who has this map ; but I make it a point, it 
shall be kept secret even from me and Mr. Arrow. 
Otherwise I would ask you to let me resign.” 

“I see,” said the doctor. “You wish us to keep 
this matter dark, and to make a garrison of the 
stern part of the ship, manned with my friend’s own 
people, and provided with all the arms and powder 
on board. In other words, you fear a mutiny.” 

“Sir,” said Captain Smollett, “with no intention 
to take offense, I deny your right to put words into 
my mouth. No captain, sir, would be justified in 
going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say 


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that. As for Mr. Arrow, I believe him thoroughly 
honest ; some of the men are the same ; all may be for 
what I know. But I am responsible for the ship’s 
•safety and the life of every man Jack aboard of her. 
I see things going, as I think, not quite right. And 
I ask you to take certain precautions, or let me 
resign my berth. And that’s all.” 

“Captain Smollett,” began the doctor, with a smile, 
“did ever you hear the fable of the mountain and the 
mouse. ^ You’ll excuse me, I dare say, but you remind 
me of that fable. When you came in here I’ll stake 
my wig you meant more than this.” 

“Doctor,” said the captain, “you are smart. When 
I came in here I meant to get discharged. I had no 
thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a word.” 

“No more I would,” cried the squire. “Had Live- 
sey not been here I should have seen you to the 
deuce. As it is, I have heard you. I will do as you 
desire; but I think the worse of you.” 

“That’s as you please, sir,” said the captain. 
“You’ll find I do my duty.” 

And with that he took his leave. 

“Trelawney,” said the doctor, “contrary to all my 
notions, I believe you have managed to get two honest 
men on board with you — that man and John Silver.” 

“Silver, if you like,” cried the squire ; “but as for 
that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his con- 
duct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un- 
English.” 

“Well,” says the doctor, “we shall see.” 

When we came on deck, the men had begun al- 
ready to take out the arms and powder, yo-hoing at 
their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood 
by superintending. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


81 


The new arrangement was quite to mj liking. 
The whole schooner had been overhauled ; six berths 
had been made astern, out of what had been the after 
part of the main hold ; and this set of cabins was only 
joined to the galley and forecastle by a sparred pas- 
sage on the port side. It had been originally meant 
that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the 
doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six 
berths. Now, Redruth and I were to get two of them, 
and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep on deck 
in the companion, which had been enlarged on each 
side till you might almost have called it a roundhouse. 
A^ery low it was still, of course; but there was room 
to swing two hammocks, and even the mate seemed 
pleased with the arrangement. Even he, perhaps, 
had been doubtful as to the crew, but that is only 
guess ; for, as you shall hear, we had not long the 
benefit of his opinion. 

We were all hard at work, changing the powder 
and the berths, when the last man or two, and Long 
John along with them, came off in a shore boat. 

The cook came up the side like a monkey for 
cleverness, and, as soon as he saw what was doing, 
“So ho, mates!” says he, “what’s this.?” 

“We’re a-changing of the powder, Jack,” answers 
one. 

“Why, by the powers,” cried Long John, “if we 
do, we’ll miss the morning tide 1” 

“My orders!” said the captain shortly. “You 
may go below, my man. Hands will want supper.” 

“Ay, ay, sir,” answered the cook; and, touching 
his forelock, he disappeared at once in the direction 
of liis galley. 


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“That’s a good man, captain,” said the doctor. 
“Very likely, sir,” replied Captain Smollett. 
“Easy with that, men — easy,” he ran on, to the 
fellows who were shifting the powder ; and then sud- 
denly observing me examining the swivel we carried 
amidships, a long brass nine — “Here you ship’s 
boy,” he cried, “out o’ that! Off with you to the 
cook and get some work.” 

And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, 
quite loudly, to the doctor : — 

“I’ll have no favorites on my ship.” 

I assure you I was quite of the squire’s way of 
thinking, and hated the captain deeply. 


CHAPTER X 

THE VOYAGE 

Ale that night we were in a great bustle getting 
things stowed in their place, and boatfuls of the 
squire’s friends, Mr. Blandly and the like, coming off 
to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. W^e 
never had a night at the “Admiral Benbow” when I 
had half the work ; and I was dog-tired when, a little 
before dawn, the boatswain sounded his pipe, and the 
crew began to man the capstan bars. I might have 
been twice as weary, yet I would not have left the 
deck ; all was so new and interesting to me — the 
brief commands, the shrill note of the whistle, the 
men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the 
ship’s lanterns. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


83 


“Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave,” cried one voice. 

“The old one,” cried another. 

“Ay, ay, mates,” said Long John, who was stand- 
ing by, with his crutch under his arm, and at once 
broke out in the air and words I knew so well : — 

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest” — 

And then the whole crew bore chorus : — 

“Yo-ho-iho and a bottle of rum !” 

And at the third “ho!” drove the bars before them 
with a will. 

Even at that exciting moment it carried me back 
to the old “Admiral Benbow” in a second; and I 
seemed to hear the voice of the captain piping in the 
chorus. But soon the anchor was short up ; soon it 
was hanging dripping at the bows ; soon the sails 
began to draw, and the land and shipping to flit by 
on either side ; and before I could lie down to snatch 
an hour of slumber the Hispaniola had begun her 
voyage to the Isle of Treasure. 

I am not going to relate that voyage in detail. It 
was fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a 
good ship, the crew were capable seamen, and the 
captain thoroughly understood his business. But 
before we came the length of Treasure Island, two or 
three things had happened which require to be 
known. 

Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than 
the captain had feared. He had no command among 
the men, and people did what they pleased with him. 
But that was by no means the worst of it ; for after 


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a day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with 
hazy eye, red cheeks, stuttering tongue, and other 
marks of drunkenness. Time after time he was 
ordered below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and cut 
himself ; sometimes he lay all day long in his little 
bunk at one side of the companion; sometimes for a 
day or two he would be almost sober and attend to 
his work at least passably. 

In the meantime, we could never make out where 
he got the drink. That w'as the ship’s mystery. 
Watch him as we pleased, we could do nothing to 
solve it; and when we asked him to his face, he would 
only laugh, if he were drunk, and, if he were sober, 
deny solemnly that he ever tasted anything but 
water. 

He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad 
influence among the men, but it was plain that at this 
rate he must soon kill himself outright ; so nobody 
was much surprised, nor very sorry, when one dark 
night, with a head sea, he disappeared entirely and 
was seen no more. 

“Overboard!” said the captain. “Well, gentle- 
men, that saves the trouble of putting him in irons.” 

But there we were, without a mate ; and it was 
necessary, of course, to advance one of the men. 
The boatswain. Job Anderson, was the likeliest man 
aboard, and, though he kept his old title, he served 
in a way as mate. Mr. Trelawney had followed the 
sea, and his knowledge made him very useful, for he 
often took a watch himself in easy weather. And the 
coxswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, ex- 
perienced seaman, who could be trusted at a pinch 
with almost anything. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


85 


He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, and 
so the mention of his name leads me on to speak of 
our ship’s cook, Barbecue, as the men called him. 

Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard 
round his neck, to have both hands as free as pos- 
sible. It was something to see him wedge the foot of 
the crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped against 
it, yielding to every movement of the ship, get on 
with his cooking like some one safe ashore. Still 
more strange was it to see him in the heaviest weather 
cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to 
help him across the widest spaces — Long John’s 
earrings, they were called; and he wmuld hand him- 
self from one place to another, now using the crutch, 
now trailing it alongside by the lanyard, as quickly 
as another man could walk. Yet some of the men 
who had sailed with him before expressed their pity 
to see him so reduced. 

“He’s no common man. Barbecue,” said the cox- 
swain to me. “He had good schooling in his young 
days, and can speak like a book when so minded ; and 
brave — a lion’s nothing alongside of Long John ! 
I seen him grapple four, and knock their heads to- 
gether — him unarmed.” 

All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He 
had a way of talking to each, and doing everybody 
some particular service. To me he w'as unweariedly 
kind ; and always glad to see me in the galley, which 
he kept as clean as a new pin ; the dishes hanging up 
burnished and his parrot in a cage in one corner. 

“Come away, Hawkins,” he would say ; “come and 
have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than 
yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the news. 
Here’s Cap’n Flint — I calls my parrot Cap’n 


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Flint, after the famous buccaneer — here’s Cap’n 
Flint predicting success to our v’yage. Wasn’t you, 
cap’n?” 

And the parrot would say, with great rapidity, 
“Pieces of eight ! pieces of eight ! pieces of eight !” 
till you wondered that it was not out of breath, or 
till John threw his handkerchief over the cage. 

“Now, that bird,” he would say, “is, maybe, two 
hundred years old, Hawkins — they lives for ever 
mostly; and if anybody’s seen more wickedness, it 
must be the devil himself. She’s sailed with England, 
the great Cap’n England, the pirate. She’s been at 
Madagascar, and at Malabar, and Surinam, and 
Providence, and Porto Bello. She was at the fishing 
up of the wrecked plate ships. It’s there she learned 
‘Pieces of eight,’ and little wonder; three hundred 
and fifty thousand of ’em, Hawkins ! She was at the 
boarding of the Viceroy of the Indies out of Goa, 
she was ; and to look at her you would think she was 
a babby. But you smelt powder — didn’t you, 
cap’n ?” 

“Stand by to go about,” the parrot would scream. 

“Ah, she’s a handsome craft, she is,” the cook 
would say, and give her sugar from his pocket, and 
then the bird would peck at the bars and swear 
straight on, passing belief for wickedness. “There,” 
John would add, “you can’t touch pitch and not be 
mucked, lad. Here’s this poor old innocent bird o’ 
mine swearing blue fire, and none the wiser, you may 
lay to that. She would swear the same, in a manner 
of speaking, before chaplain.” And John would 
touch his forelock with a solemn way he had, that 
made me think he was the best of men. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


87 


In the meantime, squire and Captain Smollett were 
still on pretty distant terms with one another. The 
squire made no bones about the matter ; 'he despised 
the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke 
but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short 
and dry, and not a word wasted. He owned, when 
driven into a corner, that he seemed to have been 
wrong about the crew, that some of them were as 
brisk as he wanted to see, and all had behaved fairly 
well. As for the ship, he had taken a downright 
fancy to her. “She’ll lie a point nearer the wind 
than a man has a right to expect of his own married 
wife, sir. But,” he would add, “all I say is we’re 
not home again, and I don’t like the cruise.” 

The squire, at this, would turn away and march 
up and down the deck, chin in air. 

“A trifle more of that man,” he would say, “and I 
shall explode.” 

We had some heavy weather, which only proved 
the qualities of the Hispaniola. Every man on 
board seemed well content, and they must have been 
hard to please if they had been otherwise; for it is 
my belief there was never a ship’s company so spoiled 
since Noah put to sea. Double grog was going on 
the least excuse ; there was duff on odd days, as, for 
instance, if the squire heard it was any man’s birth- 
day ; and always a barrel of apples standing broached 
in the waist, for any one to help himself that had a 
fancy. 

“Never knew good come of it yet,” the captain 
said to Dr. Livesey. “Spoil foc’s’le hands, make 
devils. That’s my belief.” 


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But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall 
hear ; for if it had not been for that, we should have 
had no note* of warning, and might all have perished 
by the hand of treachery. 

This was how it came about. 

We had run up the trades to get the wind of the 
island we were after — I am not allowed to be more 
plain — and now we were running down for it with a 
bright lookout day and night. It was about the last 
day of our outward voyage, by the largest computa- 
tion ; some time that night, or, at latest, before noon 
of the morrow, we should sight the Treasure Island. 
We were heading S. S. W., and had a steady breeze 
abeam and a quiet sea. The Hispaniola rolled 
steadily, dipping her bowsprit now and then with a 
whiff of spray. All was drawing alow and aloft ; 
every one was in the bravest spirits, because we were 
now so near an end of the first part of our adventure. 

Now, just after sundown, when all my work was 
over, and I was on my way to my berth, it occurred 
to me that I should like an apple. I ran on deck. 
The watch was all forward looking out for the island. 
The man at the helm was watching the luff of the 
sail, and whistling away gently to himself ; and that 
was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea 
against the bows and around the sides of the ship. 

In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found 
there was scarce an apple left ; but, sitting down 
there in the dark, what with the sound of the waters 
and the rocking movement of the ship, I had either 
fallen asleep or was on the point of doing so, when 
a heavy man sat down with rather a clash close by. 
The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders against 
it, and I was just about to jump up when the man 


TREASURE ISLAND 


89 


began to speak. It was Silver’s voice, and, before I 
had heard a dozen words, I would not have shown 
myself for all the world, but lay there, trembling and 
listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity; for 
from these dozen words I understood that the lives 
of all the honest men aboard depended upon me alone. 


CHAPTER XI 

WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL 

“No, not I,” said Silver. “Flint was cap’n ; I was 
quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The same 
broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights. 
It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me — 
out of college and all — Latin by the bucket, and 
what not ; but he was hanged like a dog, and sundried 
like the rest, at Corso Castle. That was Roberts’s 
men, that was, and corned of changing names to their 
ships — Royal Fortune and so on. Now, what a ship 
was christened, so let her stay, I says. So it was 
with the Cassandra, as brought us all safe home from 
Malabar, after England took the Viceroy of the 
Indies; so it was with the old Walrus, Flint’s old 
ship, as I’ve seen a-muck with the red blood and fit 
to sink w’ith gold.” 

“Ah!” cried another voice, that of the youngest 
hand on board, and evidently full of admiration, “he 
was the flower of the flock, was Flint!” 

“Davis was a man, too, by all accounts,” said 
Silver. “I never sailed along of him ; first with Eng- 
land, then w'ith Flint, that’s my story ; and now here 


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on my own account, in a manner of speaking. I laid 
by nine hundred safe, from England, and two 
thousand after Flint. That ain’t bad for a man 
before the mast — all safe in bank. ’Tain’t earning 
now, it’s saving does it, you may lay to that. 
Where’s all England’s men now.? I dunno. Where’s 
Flint’s .? Why, most on ’em aboard here, and glad to 
get the duff — been begging before that, some on 
’em. Old Pew, as had lost his sight, and might have 
thought shame, spends twelve hundred pound in a 
year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now.? 
Well, he’s dead now and under hatches ; but for two 
year before that, shiver my timbers ! the man was 
starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut 
throats, and starved at that, by the powers !” 

“Well, it ain’t much use, after all,” said the young 
seaman. 

“ ’Tain’t much use for fools, you may lay to it — 
that, nor nothing,” cried Silver. “But now, you 
look here: you’re young, you are, but you’re as 
smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on 
you, and I’ll talk to you like a man.” 

You may imagine how I felt when I heard this 
abominable old rogue addressing another in the very 
same words of flattery as he had used to myself. I 
think, if I had been able, that I would have killed 
him through the barrel. Meantime, he ran on, little 
supposing he was overheard. 

“Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They 
lives rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat and 
drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise is done, 
why, it’s hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of 
farthings in their pockets. Now, the most goes for 
rum and a good fling, and to sea again in their shirts. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


91 


But that’s not the course I lay. I puts it all away, 
some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, 
by reason of suspicion. I’m fifty, mark you; once 
back from this cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest. 
Time enough, too, says you. Ah, but I’ve lived easy 
in the meantime ; never denied myself o’ nothing heart 
desires, and slep’ soft and ate dainty all my days, 
but when at sea. And how did I begin.? Before the 
mast, like you!” 

“Well,” said the other, “but all the other money’s 
gone now, ain’t it.? You daren’t show face in Bristol 
after this.” 

“Why, where might you suppose it was.?” asked 
Silver, derisively. 

“At Bristol, in banks and places,” answered his 
companion. 

“It were,” said the cook ; “it were when we weighed 
anchor. But my old missis has it all by now. And 
the ‘Spyglass’ is sold, lease and goodwill and rig- 
ging; and the old girl’s off to meet me. I would tell 
you where, for I trust you; but it ’ud make jealousy 
among the mates.” 

“And can you trust your missis .?” asked the other. 

“Gentlemen of fortune,” returned the cook, 
“usually trusts little among themselves, and right 
they are, you may lay to it. But I have a way with 
me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable 
— one as knows me, I mean — it won’t be in the 
same world with old John. There was some that was 
feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint ; 
but Flint his own self was feared of me. Feared he 
was, and proud. They was the roughest crew afloat, 
was Flint’s ; the devil himself would have been feared 
to go to sea with them. Well, now, I tell you, I’m 


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not a boasting man, and you seen yourself how easy 
I keep company; but when I was quartermaster, 
lambs wasn’t the word for Flint’s old buccaneers. 
Ah, you may be sure of yourself in old John’s ship.” 

“Well, I tell you now,” replied the lad, “I didn’t 
half a quarter like the job till I had this talk with 
you, John ; but there’s my hand on it now.” 

“And a brave lad you were, and smart, too,” 
answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all 
the barrel shook, “and a finer figurehead for a 
gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on.” 

By this time I had begun to understand the mean- 
ing of their terms. By a “gentleman of fortune” 
they plainly meant neither more nor less than a 
common pirate, and the little scene that I had over- 
heard was the last act in the corruption of one of the 
honest hands — perhaps of the last one left aboard. 
But on this point I was soon to be relieved, for Silver 
giving a little whistle, a third man strolled up and 
sat down by the party. 

“Dick’s square,” said Silver. 

“Oh, I know’d Dick was square,” returned the 
voice of the coxswain, Israel Hands. “He’s no fool, 
is Dick.” And he turned his quid and spat. “But, 
look here,” he went on, “here’s what I want to know. 
Barbecue : how long are we a-going to stand off and 
on like a blessed bumboat.? I’ve had almost enough o’ 
Cap’n Smollett ; he’s hazed me long enough, by 
thunder ! I want to go into that cabin, I do. I want 
their pickles and wines, and that.” 

“Israel,” said Silver, “your head ain’t much 
account, nor ever was. But you’re able to hear, I 
reckon; leastways, your ears is big enough. Noav, 
here’s what I say: you’ll berth forward, and you’ll 


TREASURE ISLAND 


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live hard, and you’ll speak soft, and you’ll keep 
sober, till I give the word ; and you may lay to that, 
my son.” 

“Well, I don’t say no, do I.?” growled the cox- 
swain. “What I say is, when.? That’s what I say.” 

“When ! by the powers !” cried Silver. “Well, now, 
if you want to know. I’ll tell you when. The last 
moment I can manage; and that’s when. Here’s a 
first-rate seaman, Cap’n Smollett, sails the blessed 
ship for us. Here’s this squire and doctor with a 
map and such — I don’t know where it is, do 1 ? No 
more do you, says you. Well, then I mean this squire 
and doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it 
aboard, by the powers. Then we’ll see. If I was 
sure of you all, sons of double Dutchmen, I’d have 
Cap’n Smollett navigate us halfway back again be- 
fore I struck.” 

“Why, we’re all seamen aboard here, I should 
think,” said the lad Dick. 

“We’re all foc’s’le hands, you mean,” snapped 
Silver. “We can steer a course, but who’s to set one.? 
That’s what all you gentlemen split on, first and last. 
If I had my way, I’d have Cap’n Smollett work us 
back into the trades at least; then we’d have no 
blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a 
day. But I know the sort you are. I’ll finish with 
’em at the island, as soon’s the blunt’s on board, and 
a pity it is. But you’re never happy till you’re 
drunk. Split my sides, I’ve a sick heart to sail with 
the likes of you!” 

“Easy all. Long John,” cried Israel. “Who’s 
a-crossin’ of you.?” 

“Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I 
seen laid aboard.? and how many brisk lads drying 


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in the sun at Execution Dock?” cried Silver, “and 
all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You 
hear me? I seen a thing or two at sea, I have. If 
you Avould on’y lay your course, and a p’int to wind- 
ward, you would ride in carriages, you would. But 
not you! I know you. You’ll have your mouthful 
of rum to-morrow, and go hang.” 

“Everybody know’d you was a kind of a chapling, 
John; but there’s others as could hand and steer as 
well as you,” said Israel. “They liked a bit o’ fun, 
thej" did. They wasn’t so high and dry, nohow, but 
took their fling, like jolly companions every one.” 

“So?” says Silver. “Well, and where are they 
now? Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar-man. 
Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, they 
was a sweet crew, they was! on’y, where are they?” 

“But,” asked Dick, “when we do lay ’em athwart, 
what are we to do with ’em, anyhow?” 

“There’s the man for me!” cried the cook, admir- 
ingly. “That’s what I call business. Well, what 
would you think? Put ’em ashore like maroons? That 
would have been England’s way. Or cut ’em down 
like that much pork? That would have been Flint’s 
or Billy Bones’s.” 

“Billy was the man for that,” said Israel. “ ‘Dead 
men don’t bite,’ says he. Well, he’s dead now hisself ; 
he knows the long and short on it now ; and if ever a 
rough hand came to port, it was Billy.” 

“Right you are,” said Silver, “rough and ready. 
But mark you here : I’m an easy man — I’m quite 
the gentleman, says you; but this time it’s serious. 
Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my vote — death. 
When I’m in Parlyment, and riding in my coach, I 
don’t want none of these sea lawyers in the cabin 


TREASURE ISLAND 


95 


a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at 
prayers. Wait is what I say; but when the time 
comes, why let her rip !” 

“John,” cries the coxswain, “you’re a man !” 

“You’ll say so, Israel, when you see,” said Silver. 
“Only one thing I claim — I claim Trelawney. I’ll 
wring his calf’s head off his body with these hands. 
Dick!” he added, breaking off, “you just jump up, 
like a sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe 
like.” 

You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have 
leaped out and run for it, if I had found the 
strength ; but my limbs and heart alike misgave me. 
I heard Dick begin to rise, and then some one seem- 
ingly stopped him, and the voice of Hands ex- 
claimed : — 

“Oh, stow that! Don’t you get sucking of that 
bilge, John. Let’s have a go of the rum.” 

“Dick,” said Silver, “I trust you. I’ve a gauge 
on the keg, mind. There’s the key ; you fill a pannikin 
and bring it up.” 

Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to 
myself that this must have been how Mr. Arrow got 
the strong waters that destroyed him. 

Dick was gone but a little while, and during his 
absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook’s ear. 
It was but a word or two that I could catch, and yet 
I gathered some important news ; for, besides other 
scraps that tended to the same purpose, this whole 
clause was audible: “Not another man of them’ll 
jine.” Hence there were still faithful men on board. 

When Dick returned, one after another of the trio 
took the pannikin and drank — one “To luck an- 
other with a “Here’s to old Flint and Silver himself 


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saying, in a kind of song, “Here’s to ourselves, and 
hold your luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff.” 

Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the 
barrel, and, looking up, I found the moon had risen, 
and was silvering the mizzentop and shining white 
on the luff of the foresail ; and almost at the same 
time the voice of the lookout shouted “Land ho !” 


CHAPTER XH 

COUNCIL OF WAR 

There was a great rush of feet across the deck. 
I could hear people tumbling up from the cabin and 
the foc’s’le ; and, slipping in an instant outside my 
barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a double 
toward the stern, and came out upon the open deck 
in time to join Hunter and Dr. Livesey in the rush 
for the weather bow. 

There all hands were already congregated. A 
belt of fog had lifted almost simultaneously with the 
appearance of the moon. Away to the southwest of 
us we saw two low hills, about a couple of miles apart, 
and rising behind one of them a third and higher 
hill, whose peak was still buried in the fog. All three 
seemed sharp and conical in figure. 

So much I saw, almost in a dream, for I had not 
yet recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or 
two before. And then I heard the voice of Captain 
Smollett issuing orders. The Hispaniola was laid a 
couple of points nearer the wind, and now sailed a 
course that would just clear the island on the east. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


97 


“And now, men,” said the captain, when all was 
sheeted home, “has any one of you ever seen that 
land ahead?” 

“I have, sir,” said Silver. “I’ve watered there 
with a trader I was cook in.” 

“The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, I 
fancy?” asked the captain. 

“Yes, sir; Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a 
main place for pirates once, and a hand we had on 
board knowed all their names for it. That hill to 
the nor’ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are 
three hills in a row running south’ard — fore, main, 
and mizzen, sir. But the main — that’s the big ’un 
with the cloud on it — they usually calls the Spy- 
glass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they 
was in the anchorage cleaning; for it’s there they 
cleaned their ships, sir, asking your pardon.” 

“I have a chart here,” says Captain Smollett. 
“See if that’s the place.” 

Long John’s eyes burned in his head as he took 
the chart ; but, by the fresh look of the paper, I 
knew he was doomed to disappointment. This was 
not the map we found in BiUy Bones’s chest, but an 
accurate copy, complete in all things — names and 
heights and soundings — with the single exception of 
the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp as must 
have been his annoyance. Silver had the strength of 
mind to hide it. 

“Yes, sir,” said he, “this is the spot to be sure; 
and ver}^ prettily drawed out. Who might have done 
that, I wonder? The pirates were too ignorant, I 
reckon. Ay, here it is : ‘Capt. Kidd’s Anchorage’ — 
just the name my shipmate called it. There’s a 
strong current runs along the south, and then away 


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nor’ard up the west coast. Right you was, sir,” 
says he, “to haul your wind and keep the weather of 
the island. Leastways, if such was your intention 
as to enter and careen, and there ain’t no better 
place for that in these waters.” 

“Thank you, my man,” says Captain Smollett. 
“I’ll ask you, later on, to give us a help. You may 

go.” 

I was surprised at the coolness with which John 
avowed his knowledge of the island ; and I own I was 
half-frightened when I saw him drawing nearer to 
myself. He did not knO'W, to be sure, that I had 
overheard his counsel from the apple barrel, and yet 
1 had, by this time, taken such a horror of his 
cruelty, duplicity, and power, that I could scarce 
conceal a shudder when he laid his hand upon my arm. 

“Ah,” says he, “this here is a sweet spot, this 
island — a sweet spot for a lad to get ashore on. 
You’ll bathe, and you’ll climb trees, and you’ll hunt 
goats, you will ; and you’ll get aloft on them hills 
like a goat yourself. Why, it makes me young again. 
I was going to forget my timber leg, I was. It’s a 
pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes, and 
you may lay to that. When you want to go a bit 
of exploring, you just ask old John, and he’ll put up 
a snack for you to take along.” 

And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the 
shoulder, he hobbled off forward and went below. 

Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr. Livesey were 
talking together on the quarter-deck, and, anxious 
as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt 
them openly. While I was still casting about in my 
thoughts to find some probable excuse. Dr. Livesey 
called me to his side. He had left his pipe below. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


99 


and being a slave to tobacco, had meant that I should 
fetch it ; but as soon as I was near enough to speak 
and not to be overheard, I broke out immediately: 
“Doctor, let me speak. Get the captain and squire 
down to the cabin, and then make some pretence to 
send for me. I have terrible news.” 

The doctor changed countenance a little, but next 
moment he was master of himself. 

“Thank you, Jim,” said he, quite loudly, “that 
was all I wanted to know,” as if he had asked me a 
question. 

And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined 
the other two. They spoke together for a little, and 
though none of them started, or raised his voice, or 
so much as whistled, it was plain enough that Dr. 
Livesey had communicated my request ; for the next 
thing that I heard was the captain giving an order 
to Job Anderson, and all hands were piped on deck. 

“My lads,” said Captain Smollett, “I’ve a word to 
say to you. This land that we have sighted is the 
place we have been sailing to. Mr. Trelawney, being 
a very open-handed gentleman, as w'e all know, has 
just asked me a word or two, and as I was able to 
tell him that every man on board had done his duty, 
alow and aloft, as I never ask to see it done better, 
why, he and I and the doctor are going below to the 
cabin to drink your health and luck, and you’ll have 
grog served out for you to drink our health and luck. 
I’ll tell you what I think of this : I think it hand- 
some. And if you think as I do, you’ll give a good 
sea cheer for the gentleman that does it.” 

The cheer followed — that was a matter of course ; 
but it rang out so full and hearty, that I confess I 


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could hardly believe these same men were plotting 
for our blood. 

“One more cheer for Cap’n Smollett,” cried Long 
John, when the first had subsided. 

And this also was given with a will. 

On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, 
and not long after, word was sent forward that Jim 
Hawkins was wanted in the cabin. 

I found them all three seated round the table, a 
bottle of Spanish wine and some raisins before them, 
and the doctor smoking away, with his wig on his 
lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was 
agitated. The stern window was open, for it was a 
warm night, and you could see the moon shining be- 
hind on the ship’s wake. 

“Now, Hawkins,” said the squire, “you have some- 
thing to say. Speak up.” 

I did as I was bid, and, as short as I could make 
it, told the whole details of Silver’s conversation. 
Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor did any 
one of the three of them make so much as a move- 
ment, but they kept their eyes upon my face from 
first to last. 

“Jim,” said Dr. Livesey, “take a seat.” 

And they made me sit down at table beside them, 
poured me out a glass of wine, filled my hands with 
raisins, and all three, one after the other, and each 
with a bow, drank my good health, and their service 
to me, for my luck and courage. 

“Now, captain,” said the squire, “you were right, 
and I was wrong. I own myself an ass, and I await 
your orders.” 

“No more an ass than I, sir,” returned the captain. 
“I never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny but 


TREASURE ISLAND 


101 


what showed signs before, for any man that had an 
eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps ac- 
cording. But this crew,” he added, “beats me.” 

“Captain,” said the doctor, “with your permission, 
that’s Silver. A very remarkable man.” 

“He’d look remarkably well from a yardarm, sir,” 
returned the captain. “But this is talk; this don’t 
lead to anything. I see three or four points, and 
with Mr. Trelawney’s permission. I’ll name them.” 

“You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to 
speak,” says Mr. Trelawney, grandly. 

“First point,” began Mr. Smollett. “We must go 
on, because we can’t turn back. If I gave the word 
to go about, they would rise at once. Second point, 
we have time before us — at least, until this treas- 
ure’s found. Third point, there are faithful hands. 
Now, sir, it’s got to come to blows sooner or later; 
and what I propose is, to take 'time by the forelock, 
as the saying is, and come to blows some fine day 
when they least expect it. We can count, I take it, 
on your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney.?” 

“As upon myself,” declared the squire. 

“Three,” reckoned the captain, “ourselves make 
seven, counting Hawkins, here. Now, about the 
honest hands.?” 

“Most likely Trelawney’s own men,” said the doc- 
tor ; “those he had picked up for himself, before he 
lit on Silver.” 

“Nay,” replied the squire, “Hands was one of 
mine.” 

“I did think I could have trusted Hands,” added 
the captain. 


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“And to think that they’re all Englishmen !” broke 
out the squire. “Sir, I could find it in my heart to 
blow the ship up.” 

“Well, gentlemen,” said the captain, “the best that 
I can say is not much. We must lay to, if you 
please, and keep a bright lookout. It’s trying on a 
man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to 
blows. But there’s no help for it till we know our 
men. Lay to, and whistle for a wind, that’s my 
view.” 

“Jim here,” said the doctor, “can help us more 
than any one. The men are not shy with him, and 
Jim is a noticing lad.” 

“Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you,” added 
the squire. 

I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt 
altogether helpless ; and yet, by an odd train of cir- 
cumstances, it was indeed through me that safety 
came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there 
were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we 
knew we could rely ; and out of these seven one was a 
boy. Si) that the grown men on our side were six to 
their nineteen. 


PART HI 


MY SHORE ADVENTURE 


CHAPTER XHI 

HOW I BEGAN IMY SHORE ADVENTURE 

The appearance of the island when I came on deck 
next morning was altogether changed. Although 
the breeze had now utterly failed, we had made a 
great deal of way during the night, and were now 
lying becalmed about half a mile to the southeast of 
the low eastern coast. Gray-colored woods covered 
a large part of the surface. This even tint was in- 
deed broken up by streaks of yellow sand break in the 
lower lands, and by many tall trees of the pine 
family, outtopping the others — some singly, some 
in clumps ; but the general coloring was uniform and 
sad. The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in 
spires of naked rock. All were strangely shaped, and 
the Spyglass, which was by three or four hundred 
feet the tallest on the island, was likewise the strang- 
est in configuration, running up sheer from almost 
every side, and then suddenly cut off at the top like 
a pedestal to put a statue on. 

The Hispaniola was rolling scuppers under in the 
ocean swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks, 
the rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole 
ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manu- 

103 


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factory. I had to cling tight to the backstay, and 
the world turned giddily before my eyes ; for though 
I was a good enough sailor when there was way on, 
this standing still and being rolled about like a bottle 
was a thing I never learned to stand without a qualm 
or so, above all in the morning, on an empty stomach. 

Perhaps it was this — perhaps it was the look of 
the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild 
stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and 
hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach — at 
least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the 
shore birds were fishing and crying all round us, and 
you would have thought any one would have been 
glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my 
heart sank, as the saying is, into my boots ; and from 
that first look onward, I hated the very thought of 
Treasure Island. 

We had a dreary morning’s work before us, for 
there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to 
be got out and manned, and the ship warped three 
or four miles round the corner of the island, and up 
the narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton 
Island. I volunteered for one of the boats, where I 
had, of course, no business. The heat was sweltering, 
and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 
Anderson was in command of my boat, and instead 
of keeping the crew in order, he grumbled as loud as 
the worst. 

“Well,” he said, with an oath, “it’s not forever.” 

I thought this was a very bad sign ; for, up to 
that day, the men had gone briskly and willingly 
about their business ; but the very sight of the island 
had relaxed the cords of discipline. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


105 


. All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman 
and conned the ship. He knew the passage like the 
palm of his hand ; and though the man in the chains 
got everywhere more water than was down in the 
chart, John never hesitated once. 

“There’s a strong scour with the ebb,” he said, 
“and this here passage has been dug out, in a manner 
of speaking, with a spade.” 

We brought up just where the anchor was in the 
chart, about a third of a mile from either shore, the 
mainland on one side, and Skeleton Island on the 
other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of 
our anchor sent up clouds of birds wheeling and cry- 
ing over the woods ; but in less than a minute they 
were down again, and all was once more silent. 

The place was entirely landlocked, buried in 
woods, the trees coming right down to high-water 
mark, the shores mostl}^ flat, and the hilltops stand- 
ing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheater, 
one here, one there. Two little rivers, or, rather, 
two swamps, emptied out into this pond, as you might 
call it ; and the foliage round that part of the shore 
had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship 
we could see nothing of the house or stockade, for 
they were quite buried among trees ; and if it had not 
been for the chart on the companion, we might have 
been the first that had ever anchored there since the 
island arose out of the seas. 

There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound 
but that of the surf booming half a mile away along 
the beaches and against the rocks outside. A 
peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage — 
a smell of sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I 


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observed the doctor sniffing and sniffing, like some one 
tasting a bad egg. 

“I don’t know about treasure,” he said, “but I’ll 
stake my wig there’s fever here.” 

If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the 
boat, it became truly threatening when they had come 
aboard. They lay about the deck growling together 
in talk. The slightest order was received with a 
black look, and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. 
Even the honest hands must have caught the infec- 
tion, for there was not one man aboard to mend 
another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a 
tliundercloud. 

And it was not only we of the cabin party who 
perceived the danger. Long John was hard at work 
going from group to group, spending himself in good 
advice, and as for example no man could have shown 
a better. He fairly outstripped himself in willing- 
ness and civility ; he was all smiles to every one. If 
an order were given, John would be on his crutch in 
an instant, with the cheeriest “Ay, ay, sir!” in the 
world; and when there was nothing else to do, he 
kept up one song after another, as if to conceal the 
discontent of the rest. 

Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy after- 
noon, this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John 
appeared the worst. 

We held a council in the cabin. 

“Sir,” said the captain, “if I risk another order 
the whole ship’ll come about our ears by the run. 
You see, sir, here it is. I get a rough answer, do I 
not.^ Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in two 
shakes ; if I don’t. Silver will see there’s something 


TREASURE ISLAND 


107 


under that, and the game’s up. Now, we’ve only one 
man to rely on.” 

“And who is that.?” asked the squire. 

“Silver, sir,” returned the captain ; “he’s as 
anxious as you and I to smother things up. This is 
a tiff ; he’d soon talk ’em out of it if he had the 
chance, and what I propose to do is to give him the 
chance. Let’s allow the men an afternoon ashore. 
If they all go, why, we’ll fight the ship. If they 
none of them go, well, then, we hold the cabin, and 
God defend the right. If some go, you mark my 
words, sir. Silver’ll bring ’em aboard again as mild 
as lambs.” 

It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out 
to all the sure men; Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth 
were taken into our confidence, and received the news 
with less surprise and a better spirit than we had 
looked for, and then the captain went on deck and 
addressed the crew. 

“My lads,” said he, “we’ve had a hot day, and are 
all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore’ll hurt no- 
body — the boats are still in the water ; you can take 
the gigs, and as many as please can go ashore for the 
afternoon. I’ll fire a gun half an hour before sun- 
down.” 

I believe the silly fellows must have thought they 
would break their shins over treasure as soon as they 
were landed ; for they all came out of their sulks in a 
moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in a 
far-away hill, and sent the birds once more flying and 
squalling round the anchorage. 

The captain was too bright to be in the way. He 
whipped out of sight in a moment, leaving Silver to 
arrange the party ; and I fancy it was as well he did 


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SO. Had he been on deck, he could no longer so much 
as have pretended not to understand the situation. 
It was as plain as day. Silver was the captain, and 
a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The honest 
hands — and I was soon to see it proved that there 
were such on board — must have been very stupid 
fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the truth was this, 
that all hands were disaffected by the example of the 
ringleaders — only some more, some less ; and a few, 
being good fellows in the main, could neither be led 
nor driven any further. It is one thing to be idle 
and skulk, and quite another to take a ship and 
murder a number of innocent men. 

At last, however, the party was made up. Six 
fellows were to stay on board, and the remaining 
thirteen, including Silver, began to embark. 

Then it was that there came into my head the first 
of the mad notions that contributed so much to save 
our lives. If six men were left by Silver, it was plain 
our party could not take and fight the ship ; and 
since only six were left, it was equally plain that the 
cabin party had no present need of my assistance. 
It occurred to me at once to go ashore. In a jiffy I 
had slipped over the side, and curled up in the fore- 
sheets of the nearest boat, and almost at the same 
moment she shoved off. 

No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying, 
“Is that you, Jim.!^ Keep your head down.” But 
Silver, from the other boat, looked sharply over and 
called out to know if that were me; and from that 
moment I began to regret what I had done. 

The creM^s raced for the beach; but the boat I was 
in, having some start, and being at once the lighter 
and the better manned, shot far ahead of her consort. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


109 


and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees, 
and I had caught a branch and swung myself out, 
and plunged into the nearest thicket, while Silver 
and the rest were still a hundred yards behind. 

“Jim, Jim !” I heard him shouting. 

But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, 
ducking, and breaking through, I ran straight before 
my nose, till I could run no longer. 


CHAPTER XIV 

THE FIRST BLOW 

I WAS SO pleased at having given the slip to Long 
John, that I began to enjoy myself and look around 
me with some interest on the strange land that I was 
in. 

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bul- 
rushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees ; and I 
had now come out upon the skirts of an open piece 
of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, 
dotted with a few pines, and a great number of con- 
torted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but pale 
in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of the 
open stood one of the hills, with two quaint, craggy 
peaks, shining vividly in the sun. 

I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. 
The isle was uninhabited; my shipmates I had left 
behind, and nothing lived in front of me but dumb 
brutes and fowls. 1 turned hither and thither among 
the trees, tiere and there were flowering plants, un- 
known to me; here and there I saw snakes, and one 


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raised his head from a ledge of rock and hissed at me 
with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little 
did I suppose that he was a deadly enemy, and that 
the noise was the famous rattle. 

Then I came to a long thicket of these oaklike 
trees — live, or evergreen, oaks, I heard afterward 
they should be called — which grew low along the 
sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the 
foliage compact, like thatch. The thicket stretched 
down from the top of one of the sandy knolls, spread- 
ing and growing taller as it went, until it reached 
the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through which 
the nearest of the little rivers soaked its way into 
the anchorage. The marsh was steaming in the 
strong sun, and the outline of the Spyglass trembled 
through the haze. 

All at once there began to go a sort of bustle 
among the bulrushes; a wild duck flew up with a 
quack, another followed, and soon over the whole 
surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung 
screaming and circling in the air. I judged at once 
that some of my shipmates must be drawing near 
along the borders of the fen. Nor was I deceived; 
for soon I heard the very distant and low tones of a 
human voice, which, as I continued to give ear, grew 
steadily louder and nearer. 

This put me in a great fear, and I crawled under 
cover of the nearest live oak, and squatted there, 
hearkening, as silent as a mouse. 

Another voice answered ; and then the first voice, 
which I now recognized to be Silver’s, once more 
took up the story, and ran on for a long while in a 
stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. 
By the sound they must have been talking earnestly. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


111 


and almost fiercely ; but no distinct word came to my 
hearing. 

At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and 
perhaps to have sat down ; for not only did they 
cease to draw any nearer, but the birds themselves 
began to grow more quiet, and to settle again to their 
places in the swamp. 

And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my 
business ; that since I had been so foolhardy as to 
come ashore with these desperadoes, the least I could 
do was to overhear them at their councils ; and that 
my plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I 
could manage, under the favorable ambush of the 
crouching trees. 

I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty 
exactly, not only by the sound of their voices, but 
by the behavior of the few birds that still hung in 
alarm above the heads of the intruders. 

Crawling on all fours, I made steadily but slowly 
toward them ; till at last, raising my head to an 
aperture among the leaves, I could see clear down 
into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely 
set about with trees, where Long John Silver and 
another of the crew stood face to face in conver- 
sation. 

The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown 
his hat beside him on the ground, and his great, 
smooth, blond face, all shining with heat, was lifted 
t^ the other man’s in a kind of appeal. 

“Mate,” he was saying, “it’s because I thinks gold 
dust of you — gold dust, and you may lay to that ! 
If I hadn’t took to you like pitch, do you think I’d 
have been here a-warning of you.?’ All’s up — you 
can’t make nor mend ; it’s to save your neck that I’m 


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a-speaking, and if one of the wild ’uns knew it, where 
’ud I be, Tom — now, tell me, where ’ud I be?” 

“Silver,” said the other man — and I observed he 
was not only red in the face, but spoke as hoarse as 
a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a taut rope — 
“Silver,” says he, “you’re old, and you’re honest, or 
has the name for it; and you’ve money, too, which 
lots of poor sailors hasn’t; and you’re brave, or I’m 
mistook. And will you tell me you’ll let yourself be 
led away with that kind of a mess of swabs ? not you ! 
As sure as God sees me, I’d sooner lose my hand. If 
I turn agin my dooty ” 

And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a 
noise. I had found one of the honest hands — well, 
here, at that same moment, came news of another. 
Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a 
sudden, a sound like the cry of anger, then another 
on the back of it ; and then one horrid long-drawn 
scream. The rocks of the Spyglass reechoed it a 
score of times ; the whole troop of marsh birds rose 
again, darkening heaven, with a simultaneous whirr; 
and long after that death yell was still ringing in my 
brain, silence had reestablished its empire, and only 
the rustle of the redescending birds and the boom of 
the distant surges disturbed the languor of the after- 
noon. 

Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the 
spur ; but Silver had not winked an eye. He stood 
wliere he was, resting lightly on his crutch, watching 
his companion like a snake about to spring. 

“John,” said the sailor, stretching out his hand. 

“Hands off !” cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as 
it seemed to me, with the speed and security of a 
trained gymnast. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


113 


“Hands off, if you like, John Silver,” said the 
other. “It’s a black conscience that can make you 
feared of me. But, in heaven’s name, tell me what 
was that.?” 

“That.?” returned Silver, smiling away, but warier 
than ever, his eye a mere pin point in his big face, 
but gleaming like a crumb of glass. “That! Oh, I 
reckon that’ll be Alan.” 

And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero. 

“Alan!” he cried. “Then rest his soul for a true 
seaman ! And as for you, John Silver, long you’ve 
been a mate of mine, but mate of mine no more. If 
I die like a dog. I’ll die in my duty. You’ve killed 
Alan, have you.? Kill me, too, if you can. But I 
defies you.” 

And with that, this brave fellow turned his back 
directly on the cook, and set off walking for the 
beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a 
cry, John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the 
crutch out of his armpit, and sent that uncouth 
missile hurtling through the air. It struck poor 
Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, 
right between the shoulders in the middle of his back. 
His hands flew up, he gave a sort of gasp, and fell. 

Whether he were injured much or little, none could 
ever tell. Like enough, to judge from the sound, his 
back was broken on the spot. But he had no time 
given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even 
without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next 
moment, and had twice buried his knife up to the 
hilt in that defenseless body. From my place of am- 
bush, I could hear him pant aloud as he struck the 
blows. 


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I do not known what it rightly is to faint, but I 
do know that for the next little while the whole world 
swam away from before me in a whirling mist ; Silver 
and the birds, and the tall Spyglass hilltop, going 
round and round and topsy-turvy before my eyes, 
and all manner of bells ringing and distant voices 
shouting in my ear. 

When I came again to myself, the monster had 
pulled himself together, his crutch under his arm, his 
hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay motion- 
less upon the Siward ; but the murderer minded him 
not a whit, cleansing his bloodstained knife the while 
upon a wisp of grass. Everything else was un- 
changed, the sun still shining mercilessly on the 
steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of the moun- 
tain, and I could scarce persuade myself that murder 
had been actually done, and a human life cruelly cut 
short a moment since, before my eyes. 

But now John put his hand into his pocket, 
brought out a whistle, and blew upon it several 
modulated blasts, that rang far across the heated 
air. I could not tell, of course, the meaning of the 
signal ; but it instantly awoke my fears. More men 
would be coming. I might be discovered. They had 
already slain two of the honest people; after Tom 
and Alan, might not I come next.? 

Instantly I began to extricate myself and crawl 
back again, with what speed and silence I could 
manage, to the more open portion of the wood. As 
I did so, I could hear hails coming and going between 
the old buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound 
of danger lent me wings. As soon as I was clear of 
the thicket, I ran as I never ran before, scarce mind- 
ing the direction of my flight, so long as it led me 


TREASURE ISLAND 


115 


from the murderers ; and as I ran, fear grew and 
grew upon me, until it turned into a kind of frenzy. 

Indeed, could any one be more entirely lost than 
I? When the gun fired, how should I dare to go down 
to the boats among those fiends, still smoking from 
their crime? Would not the first of them who saw 
me wring my neck like a snipe’s? Would not my ab- 
sence itself be an evidence to them of my alarm, and 
therefore of my fatal knowledge? It was all over, I 
thought. Good-by to the Hispaniola; good-by to 
the squire, the doctor, and the captain! There was 
nothing left for me but death by starvation, or death 
by the hands of the mutineers. 

All this while, as I say, I was still running, and, 
without taking any notice, I had drawn near to the 
foot of the little hill with the two peaks, and had 
got into a part of the island where the live oaks grew 
more widely apart, and seemed more like forest trees 
in their bearing and dimensions. Mingled with these 
were a few scattered pines, some fifty, some nearer 
seventy, feet high. The air, too, smelled more 
freshly than down beside the marsh. 

And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill 
with a thumping heart. 


CHAPTER XV 

THE MAN OF THE ISLAND 

From the side of the hill, which was here steep and 
stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and fell 
rattling and bounding through the trees. My eyes 
turned instinctively in that direction, and I saw a 


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figure leap with great rapidity behind the trunk of 
a pine. Wliat it was, whether bear or man or 
monkey, I could in no wise tell. It seemed dark and 
shaggy; more I knew not. But the terror of this 
new apparition brought me to a stand. 

I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides ; be- 
hind me the murderers, before me this lurking 
nondescript. And immediately I began to prefer the 
dangers that I knew to those I knew not. Silver 
himself appeared less terrible in contrast with this 
creature of the woods, and I turned on my heel, and, 
looking sharply behind me over my shoulder, began 
to retrace my steps in the direction of the boats. 

Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a 
wide circuit, began to head me off. I was tired, at 
any rate ; but had I been as fresh as when I rose, I 
could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed 
with such an adversary. From trunk to trunk the 
creature flitted like a deer, running manlike on two 
legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen, stoop- 
ing almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was, I 
could no longer be in doubt about that. 

I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. 
I was within an ace of calling for help. But the 
mere fact that he was a man, however wild, had 
somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver began 
to revive in proportion. I stood still, therefore, and 
cast about for some method of escape ; and as I was 
so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed into 
my mind. As soon as I remembered I was not de- 
fenseless, courage glowed again in my heart; and I 
set my face resolutely for this man of the island, 
and walked briskly to>ward him. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


117 


He was concealed by this time behind another tree 
trunk ; but he must have been watching me closely, 
for as soon as I began to move in his direction he 
reappeared and took a step to meet me. Then he 
hesitated, drew back, came forward again, and at 
last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself on 
his knees and held out his clasped hands in suppli- 
cation. 

At that I once more stopped. 

‘‘Who are you.?” I asked. 

“Ben Gunn,” he answered, and his voice sounded 
hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. “I’m poor 
Be*n Gunn, I am ; and I haven’t spoke with a Christian 
these three years.” 

I could now see that he was a white man like my- 
self, and that his features were even pleasing. His 
skin, wherever it was exposed, was burned by the 
sun ; even his lips were black ; and his fair eyes 
looked quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the 
beggar men that I had seen or fancied, he was the 
chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters 
of old ship’s canvas and old sea cloth; and this ex- 
traordinary patchwork was all held together by a 
system of the most various and incongruous fasten- 
ings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry 
gaskin. About his waist he wore an old brass- 
buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid 
in his whole accouterment. 

“Three years !” I cried. “Were you ship- 
wrecked.?” 

“Nay, mate,” said he — “marooned.” 

I had heard the word, and I knew it stood for a 
horrible kind of punishment common enough among 
the buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore 


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with a little powder and shot, and left behind on some 
desolate and distant island. 

“Marooned three years agone,” he continued, “and 
lived on goats since then, and berries, and oysters. 
Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do for himself. 
But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You 
mightn’t happen to have a piece of cheese about you, 
now,? No.? Well, many’s the long night I’ve dreamed 
of cheese — toasted, mostly — and woke up again, 
and here I were,” 

“If ever I can get aboard again,” said I, “you 
shall have cheese by the stone.” 

All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my 
jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at my boots, 
and generally, in the intervals of his speech, showing 
a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow 
creature. But at my last words he perked up into a 
kind of startled slyness. 

“If ever you can get aboard again, says you?” 
he repeated. “Why, now, who’s to hinder you?” 

“Not you, I know,” was my reply. 

“And right you was,” he cried. “Now you — 
what do you call yourself, mate?” 

“Jim,” I told him. 

“Jim, Jim,” says he, quite pleased apparently. 
“Well, now, Jim, I’ve lived that rough as you’d be 
ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance, you wouldn’t 
think I had had a pious mother — to look at me?” he 
asked, 

“Why, no, not in particular,” I answered. 

“Ah, well,” said he, “but I had — r^arkable 
pious. And I was a civil, pious boy, and could rattle 
off my catechism that fast, as you couldn’t tell one 
word from another. And here’s what it come to. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


119 


Jim, and it begun with chuck-farthen on the blessed 
gravestones ! That’s what it begun with, but it went 
farther’n that ; and so my mother told me, and 
predicked the whole, she did, the pious woman ! But 
it were Providence that put me here. I’ve thought 
it all out in this here lonely island, and I’m back on 
piety. You don’t catch me tasting rum so much; 
but just a thimbleful for luck, of course, the first 
chance I have. I’m bound I’ll be good, and I see the 
way to. And, Jim” — looking all around him, and 
lowering his voice to a whisper — “I’m rich.” 

I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy 
in his solitude, and I suppose I must have shown the 
feeling in my face ; for he repeated the statement 
hotly : — 

“Rich! rich! I says. And I’ll tell you what: I’ll 
make a man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, you’ll bless your 
stars, you will, you was the first that found me !” 

And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow 
over his face, and he tightened his grasp upon my 
hand, and raised a forefinger threateningly before 
my eyes. 

“Now, Jim, you tell me true: that ain’t Flint’s 
ship.^” he asked. 

At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to 
believe that I had found an ally, and I answered him 
at once. 

“It’s not Flint’s ship, and Flint is dead; but I’ll 
tell you true, as you ask me — there are some of 
Flint’s hands aboard ; worse luck for the rest of us.” 

“Not a man — with one — leg.^” he gasped. 

“Silver.?” I asked. 

“Ah, Silver !” says he ; “that were his name.” 

^‘He’s the cook; and the ringleader, too.” 


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He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that 
he gave it quite a wring. 

“If you was sent by Long John,” he said, “I’m 
as good as pork, and I know it. But where was you, 
do you suppose.^” 

I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way 
of answer told him the whole story of our voyage, 
and the predicament in which we found ourselves. 
He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I 
had done he patted me on the head. 

“You’re a good lad, Jim,” he said; “and you’re 
all in a clove hitch, ain’t you? Well, you must put 
your trust in Ben Gunn — Ben Gunn’s the man to 
do it. Would 3 'ou think it likely, now, that your 
squire would prove a liberal-minded one in case of 
help — him being in a clove hitch, as you remark.?” 

I told him the squire was the most liberal of men. 
but you see,” returned Ben Gunn, “I didn’t 
mean giving me a gate to keep, and a shuit of livery 
clothes, and such ; that’s not my mark, Jim. What 
I mean is, would he be likely to come down to the 
toon of, say one thousand pounds out of money 
that’s as good as a man’s 4)wn already?” 

“I am sure he would,” said I. “As it was, all 
hands were to share.” 

“Jwd a passage home?” he added, with a look of 
great shrewdness. 

“Why,” I cried, “the squire’s a gentleman. And, 
besides, if we got rid of the others, we should want 
you to help work the vessel home.” 

“Ah,” said he, “so you w^ould.” And he seemed 
very much relieved. 

“Now', I’ll tell you what,” he went on. “So much 
I’ll tell you, and no more. I w'ere in Flint’s ship 


TREASURE ISLAND 


121 


when he buried the treasure ; he and six long — six 
strong seamen. They was ashore nigh on a week, 
and us standing off and on in the old Walrus. One 
fine day up went the signal, and here come Flint by 
himself in a little boat, and his head done up in a blue 
scarf. The sun was getting up, and mortal white 
he looked about the cutwater. But, there he was, 
you mind, and the six all dead — dead and buried. 
How he done it, not a man aboard us could make out. 
It was battle, murder, and sudden death, leastways 
— him against six. Billy Bones was the mate ; Long 
J ohn, he was quartermaster ; and they asked him 
where the treasure was. ‘Ah,’ says he, ‘you can go 
ashore, if you like, and stay,’ he says ; ‘but as for the 
ship, she’ll beat up for more, by thunder!’ That’s 
what he said. 

“Well, I was in another ship three years back, and 
we sighted this island. ‘Boys,’ said I, ‘here’s Flint’s 
treasure; let’s land and find it.’ The cap’n was dis- 
pleased at that; but my messmates were all of a 
mind, and landed. Twelve days they looked for it, 
and every day they had the worse word for me, until 
one fine morning all hands went aboard. ‘As for 
you, Benjamin Gunn,’ says they, ‘here’s a musket,’ 
they says, ‘and a spade, and pickax. You can stay 
here, and find Flint’s money for yourself,’ they says. 

“Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not 
a bite of Christian diet from that day to this. But 
now, you look here ; look at me. Do I look like a 
man before the mast.? No, says you. Nor I weren’t 
neither, I says.” 

And with that he winked and pinched me hard. 

“Just you mention them words to your squire, 
Jim” — he went on : “Nor he weren’t, neither — 


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that’s the words. Three years he were the man of 
this island, light and dark, fair and rain; and some- 
times he would, maybe, think upon a prayer (says 
you), and sometimes he would, maybe, think of his 
old mother, so be as she’s alive (you’ll say) ; but the 
most part of Gunn’s time (this is what you’ll say) 
— the most part of his time was took up with an- 
other matter. And then you’ll give him a nip, like 
I do.” 

And he pinched me again in the most confidential 
manner. 

“Then,” he continued — “then you’ll up, and 
you’ll say this: — Gunn is a good man (you’ll say), 

and he puts a precious sight more confidence a 

precious sight, mind that — in a gen’leman born 
than in these gen’lemen of fortune, having been one 
hisself.” 

“Well,” I said, “I don’t understand one word that 
you’ve been saying. But that’s neither here nor 
there ; for how am I to get on board ?” 

“Ah,” said he, “that’s the hitch, fon sure. Well, 
there’s my boat, that I made with my two hands. I 
keep her under the white rock. If the worst come 
to the worst, we might try that after dark. Hi !” 
he broke out, “what’s that.'”’ 

For just then, although the sun had still an hour 
or two to run, all the echoes of the island awoke and 
bellowed to the thunder of a cannon. 

“They have begun to fight!” I cried. “Follow 
me.” 

And I began to run toward the anchorage, my 
terrors all forgotten; while, close at my side, the 
marooned man in his goatskins trotted easily and 
lightly. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


123 


“Left, left,” says he; “keep to your left hand, 
mate Jim ! Under the trees with you ! Theer’s where 
I killed my first goat. They don’t come down here 
now; they’re all mastheaded on them mountings for 
the fear of Benjamin Gunn. Ah! and there’s the 
cetemery” — cemetery, he must have meant. “You 
see the mounds? I come here and prayed, nows and 
thens, when I thought maybe a Sunday would be 
about doo. It weren’t quite a chapel, but it seemed 
more solemn like ; and then, says you, Ben Gunn was 
short-handed — no chapling, nor so much as a Bible 
and a Hag, you says.” 

So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor 
receiving any answer. 

The cannon shot was followed, after a considerable 
interval, by a volley of small arms. 

Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a mile 
in front of me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the 
air above a wood. 


PART IV 


THE STOCKADE 


CHAPTER XVI 

NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR I 
HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED 

It was about half past one — three bells in the 
sea phrase — that the two boats went ashore from 
the Hispaniola. The captain, the squire, and I were 
talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been a 
breath of wind, we should have fallen on the six 
mutineers who were left aboard with us, slipped our 
cable and away to sea. But the wind was wanting; 
and, to complete our helplessness, down came Hunter 
with the news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a 
boat and was gone ashore with the rest. 

It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins ; 
but we were alarmed for his safety. With the men 
in the temper they were in, it seemed an even chance 
if we should see the lad again. We ran on deck. 
The pitch was bubbling in the seams ; the nasty 
stench of the place turned me sick; if ever a man 
smelt fever and dysentery, it was in that abominable 
anchorage. The six scoundrels were sitting grum- 
bling under a sail in the forecastle ; ashore we could 
see the gigs made fast, and a man sitting in each, 

124 


TREASURE ISLAND 


135 


hard by where the river runs in. One of them was 
whistling “Lillibullero.” 

Waiting was a strain; and it was decided that 
Hunter and I should go ashore with the jolly-boat 
in quest of information. 

The gigs had leaned to their right ; but Hunter 
and I pulled straight in, in the direction of the 
stockade upon the chart. The two who were left 
guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our ap- 
pearance ; “Lillibullero” stopped off, and I could see 
the pair discussing what they ought to do. Had 
they gone and told Silver, all might have turned out 
differently; but they had their orders, I suppose, 
and decided to sit quietly where they were and hark 
back again to “Lillibullero.” 

There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered 
so as to put it between us ; even before we landed we 
had thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out, and 
came as near running as I durst, with a big silk 
handkerchief under my hat for coolness’ sake, and 
a brace of pistols ready primed for safety. 

I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on 
the stockade. 

This was how it was : a spring of clear water rose 
almost at the top of a knoll. Well, on the knoll, and 
enclosing the spring, they had clapped a stout log 
house, fit to hold twoscore people on a pinch, and 
loopholed for musketry on every side. All round 
this they had cleared a wide spac§, and then the 
thing was completed by a paling six feet high, with- 
out door or opening, too strong to pull down without 
time and labor, and too open to shelter the besiegers. 
The people in the log house had them in every way ; 
they stood quiet in shelter and shot the others like 


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partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and 
food; for, short of a complete surprise, they might 
have held the place against a regiment. 

What particularly took my fancy was the spring. 
For, though we had a good enough place of it in the 
cabin of the Hispaniola, with plenty of arms and 
ammunition, and things to eat, and excellent wines, 
there had been one thing overlooked — we had no 
water. I was thinking this over, when there came 
ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point 
of death. I was not new to violent death — I have 
served his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, 
and got a wound myself at Fontenoy — but I know 
my pulse went dot and carry one. “Jim Hawkins is 
gone,” was my first thought. 

It is something to have been an old soldier, but 
more still to have been a doctor. There is no time 
to dill3'dally in our work. And so now I made up 
my mind instantly, and with no time lost returned 
to the shore, and jumped on board the jolly-boat. 

By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We 
made the water fly ; and the boat was soon along- 
side, and I aboard the schooner. 

I found them all shaken, as was natural. The 
squire was sitting down, as white as a sheet, thinking 
of the harm he had led us to, the good soul ! and one 
of the six forecastle hands was little better. 

“There’s a man,” says Captain Smollett, nodding 
toward him, “new to this work. He came nigh-hand 
fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. Another 
touch of the rudder and that man would join us.” 

I told my plan to the captain, and between us we 
settled on the details of its accomplishment. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


137 


We put old Redruth in the gallery between the 
cabin and the forecastle, with three or four loaded 
muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter 
brought the boat round under the stern port, and 
J<>yce and I set to work loading her with powder 
tins, muskets, bags of biscuits, kegs of pork, a cask 
of cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest. 

In the meantime the squire and the captain stayed 
on deck, and the latter hailed the coxswain, who was 
the principal man aboard. 

“Mr. Hands,” he said, “here are two of us with a 
brace of pistols each. If any one of you six makes 
a signal of any description, that man’s dead.” 

They were a good deal taken aback; and, after a 
little consultation, one and all tumbled down the fore 
companion, thinking, no doubt, to take us on the 
rear. But when they saw Redruth waiting for them 
in the sparred gallery, they went about ship at once, 
and a head popped out again on deck. 

“Down, dog!” cries the captain. 

And the head popped back again; and we heard 
no more, for the time, of these six very faint-hearted 
seamen. 

By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we 
had the jolly-boat loaded as much as we dared. 
Joyce and I got out through the stern port, and we 
made for shore again, as fast as oars could take us. 

This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along 
shore. “Lillibullero” was dropped again; and just 
before we lost sight of them behind the little point, 
one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I had 
half a mind to change my plan and destroy their 
boats, but I feared that Silver and the others might 


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be close at hand, and all might very well be lost by 
trying for too much. 

We had soon touched land in the same place as 
before, and set to provision the blockhouse. All 
three made the first journey, heavily laden, and 
tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving 
Joyce to guard them — one man, to be sure, but with 
half a dozen muskets — Hunter and I returned to 
the jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves once more. So 
we proceeded without pausing to take breath, till the 
whole cargo was bestowed, when the two servants 
took up their position in the blockhouse, and I, with 
all my power, sculled back to the Hispaniola. 

That we should have risked a second boat load 
seems more daring than it really was. They had the 
advantage of numbers, of course, but we had the ad- 
vantage of arms. Not one of the men ashore had a 
musket, and before they could get within range for 
pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves we should be 
able to give a good account of a half dozen at least. 

The squire was waiting for me at the stern window, 
all his faintness gone from him. He caught the 
painter and made it fast, and we fell to loading the 
boat for our very lives. Pork, powder, and biscuit 
was the cargo, with only a musket and a cutlass 
apiece for squire and me and Redruth and the cap- 
tain. The rest of the arms and powder we dropped 
overboard in two fathoms and a half of water, so 
that we could see the bright steel shining far below 
us in the sun, on the clean, sandy bottom. 

By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and the 
ship was swinging round to her anchor. Voices were 
heard faintly halloaing in the direction of the two 


TREASURE ISLAND 


129 


gigs; and though this reassured us for Joyce and 
Hunter, who were well to the eastward, it warned our 
party to be off. 

Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery, 
and dropped into the boat, which we then brought 
round to the ship’s counter, to be handier for Cap- 
tain Smollett. 

“Now, men,” said he, “do you hear me.?” 

There was no answer from the forecastle. 

“It’s to you, Abraham Gray — it’s to you I am 
speaking.” 

Still no reply. 

“Gray,” resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, 
“I am leaving this ship, and I order you to follow 
your captain. I know you are a good man at bottom, 
and I dare say not one of the lot of you’s as bad as 
he makes out. I have my watch here in my hand; 
I give you thirty seconds to join me in.” 

There was a pause. 

“Come, my fine fellow,” continued the captain, 
“don’t hang so long in stays. I’m risking my life, 
and the lives of these good gentlemen every second.” 

There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and 
out burst Abraham Gray with a knife cut on the side 
of the cheek, and came running to the captain, like 
a dog to the whistle. 

“I’m with you, sir,” said he. 

And the next moment he and the captain had 
dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off and 
given way. 

We were clear out of the ship ; but not yet ashore 
in our stockade. 


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CHAPTER XVII 

NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: 

THE jolly-boat’s LAST TRIP 

This fifth trip was quite different from any of the 
others. In the first place, the little gallipot of a 
boat that we were in was gravely overloaded. Five 
grown men, and three of them — Trelawney, Red- 
ruth, and the captain — over six feet high, was al- 
ready more than she was meant to carry. Add to 
that the powder, pork, and bread bags. The gun- 
wale was lipping astern. Several times we shipped 
a little water, and my breeches and the tails of my 
coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a 
hundred yards. 

The captain made us trim the boat, and we got 
her to lie a little more evenly. All the same, we were 
afraid to breathe. 

In the second place, the ebb was now making — a 
strong rippling current running westward through 
the basin, and then south’ard and seaward down the 
straits by which we had entered in the morning. 
Even the ripples were a danger to our overloaded 
craft ; but the worst of it was that we were swept 
out of our true course, and away from our proper 
landing place behind the point. If we let the current 
have its way we should come ashore beside the gigs, 
where the pirates might appear at any moment. 

“I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir,” 
said I to the captain. I was steering, while he and 
Redruth, two fresh men, were at the oars. “The tide 
keeps washing her down. Could you pull a little 
stronger.?” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


131 


“Not without swamping the boat,” said he. “You 
must bear up, sir, if you please — bear up until you 
see you’re gaining.” 

I tried, and found by experiment that the tide kept 
sweeping us westward until I had laid her head due 
east, or just about right angles to the way we ought 
to go. 

“We’ll never get ashore at this rate,” said I. 

“If it’s the only course that we can lie, sir, we 
must even lie it,” returned the captain. “We must 
keep upstream. You see, sir,” he went on, “if once 
we dropped to leeward of the landing place, it’s hard 
to say where we should get ashore, besides the chance 
of being boarded by the gigs ; whereas, the way we 
go the current must slacken, and then we can dodge 
back along the shore.” 

“The current’s less a’ready, sir,” said the man 
Gray, who was sitting in the fore-sheets ; “you can 
ease her off a bit.” 

“Thank you, my man,” said I, quite as if nothing 
had happened; for we had all quietly made up our 
minds to treat him like one of ourselves. 

Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I 
thought his voice was a little changed. 

“The gun!” said he. 

“I have thought of that,” said I, for I made sure 
he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. 
“They could never get the gun ashore, and if they 
did, they could never haul it through the woods.” 

“Look astern, doctor,” replied the captain. 

We had entirely forgotten the long nine ; and 
there, to our horror, were the five rogues busy about 
her, getting off her jacket, -as they called the stout 
tarpaulin cover under which she sailed. Not only 


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that, but it flashed into my mind at the same moment 
that the round-shot and the powder for the gun had 
been left behind, and a stroke with an ax would put 
it all into the possession of the evil ones aboard. 

“Israel was Flint’s gunner,” said Gray, hoarsely. 

At any risk, we put the boat’s head direct for the 
landing place. By this time we had got so far out of 
the run of the current that we kept steerage way 
even at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I 
could keep her steady for the goal. But the worst 
of it was, that with the course I now held, we turned 
our broadside instead of our stern to the Hispaniola, 
and offered a target like a barn door. 

I could hear, as well as see, that brandy-faced 
rascal, Israel Hands, plumping down a round-shot 
on the deck. 

“Who’s the best shot.?*” asked the captain. 

“Mr. Trelawney, out and aw'ay,” said I. 

“Mr. Trelawney, wull you please pick me off one 
of these men, sir.'* Hands, if possible,’’ said the 
captain. 

Trelawney was as cool as steel. He looked to the 
priming of his gun. 

“No^v,” cried the captain, “easy with that gun, 
sir, or you’ll swamp the boat. All hands stand by 
to trim her when he aims.” 

The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and 
w'e leaned over to the other side to keep the balance, 
and all was so nicely contrived that we did not ship 
a drop. 

They had the gun, by this time, slewed round upon 
the swivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle with 
the rammer, was, in consequence, the most exposed. 
However, w^e had no luck; for just as Trelawney 


TREASURE ISLAND 


133 


fired, down he stooped, the ball whistled over him, 
and it was one of the other four who fell. 

The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his com- 
panions on board, but by a great number of voices 
from the shore, and looking in that direction I saw 
the other pirates trooping out from among the trees 
and tumbling into their places in the boats. 

“Here come the gigs, sir,” said I. 

“Give way then,” cried the captain. “We mustn’t 
mind if we swamp her now. If we can’t get ashore, 
all’s up.” 

“Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir,” I 
added, “the crew of the other most likely going 
round by shore to cut us off.” 

“They’ll have a hot run, sir,” returned the cap- 
tain. “Jack ashore, you know. It’s not them I 
mind ; it’s the round-shot. Carpet bowls ! My lady’s 
maid couldn’t miss. Tell us, squire, when you see 
the match, and we’ll hold water.” 

In the meanwhile we had been making headway at 
a good pace for a boat so overloaded, and we had 
shipped but little water in the process. We were 
now close in ; thirty or forty strokes and we should 
beach her; for the ebb had already disclosed a nar- 
row belt of sand below the clustering trees. The gig 
was no longer to be feared; the little point had 
already concealed it from our eyes. The ebb tide, 
which had so cruelly delayed us, was now making 
reparation, and delaying our assailants. The one 
source of danger was the gun. 

“If I durst,” said the captain, “I’d stop and pick 
off another man.” 

But it was plain that they meant nothing should 
delay their shot. They had never so much as looked 


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at their fallen comrade, though he was not dead, and 
I could see him trying to crawl away. 

“Ready !” cried the squire. 

“Hold !” cried the captain, quick as an echo. 

And he and Redruth backed with a great heave 
that sent her stern bodily under water. The report 
fell in at the same instant of time. This w’as the first 
that Jim heard, the sound of the squire’s shot not 
having reached him. Where the ball passed, not one 
of us precisely knew; but I fancy it must have been 
over our heads, and that the wind of it may have 
contributed to our disaster. 

At any rate, the boat sank by the stern, quite 
gently, in three feet of water, leaving the captain and 
myself, facing each other, on our feet. The other 
three took complete headers, and came up again, 
drenched and bubbling. 

So far there was no great harm. No lives were 
lost, and we could wade ashore in safety. But there 
were all our stores at the bottom, and, to make 
things worse, only two guns out of five remained in 
a state of service. Mine I had snatched from my 
knees and held over my head, b}^ a sort of instinct. 
As for the captain, he had carried his over his 
shoulder by a bandoleer, and, like a wise man, lock 
uppermost. The other three had gone down with 
the boat. 

To add to our concern, we heard voices already 
draAving near us in the woods along shore ; and we 
had not only the danger of being cut off from the 
stockade in our half-crippled state, but the fear be- 
fore us whether, if Hunter and Joyce were attacked 
by half a dozen, they would have the sense and con- 
duct to stand firm. Hunter was steady, that we 


TREASURE ISLAND 


135 


knew; Joyce was a doubtful case — a pleasant, 
polite man for a valet, and to brush one’s clothes, 
but not entirely fitted for a man of war. 

With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast 
as we could, leaving behind us the poor jolly-boat 
and a good half of all our powder and provisions. 


CHAPTER XVHI 

NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: 

END OF THE FIRST DAY’s FIGHTING 

We made our best speed across the strip of wood 
that now divided us from the stockade ; and at every 
step we took the voices of the buccaneers rang 
nearer. Soon we could hear their footfalls as they 
ran, and the cracking of the branches as they 
breasted across a bit of thicket. 

I began to see we should have a brush for it in 
earnest, and looked to my priming. 

“Captain,” said I, “Trelawney is the dead shot. 
Give him your gun ; his own is useless.” 

They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and 
cool as he had been since the beginning of the bustle, 
hung a moment on his heel to see that all was fit for 
service. At the same time, observing Gray to be 
unarmed, I handed him my cutlass. It did all our 
hearts good to see him spit in his hand, knit his 
brows, and make the blade sing through the air. It 
was plain from every line of his body that our new 
hand was worth his salt. 


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Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the 
wood and saw the stockade in front of us. We struck 
the enclosure about the middle of the south side, and, 
almost at the same time, seven mutineers — Job 
Anderson, the boatswain, at their head — appeared 
in full cry at the southwestern corner. 

They paused, as if taken aback ; and before they 
recovered, not only the squire and I, but Hunter and 
Joyce from the blockhouse, had time to fire. The 
four shots came in rather a scattering volley ; but 
they did the business : one of the enemy actually fell, 
and the rest, without hesitation, turned and plunged 
into the trees. 

After reloading, we walked down the outside of 
the palisade to see to the fallen enemy. He was stone 
dead — shot through the heart. 

We began to rejoice over our good success, when 
just at that moment a pistol cracked in the bush, a 
ball whistled close past my ear, and poor Tom Red- 
ruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. 
Both the squire and I returned the shot ; but as we 
had nothing to aim at, it is probable we only wasted 
powder. Then we reloaded, and turned our attention 
to poor Tom. 

The captain and Gray were already examining 
him ; and I saw with half an eye that all was over. 

I believe the readiness of our return volley had 
scattered the mutineers once more, for we were 
suffered without further molestation to get the poor 
old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade, and car- 
ried, groaning and bleeding, into the log house. 

Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of 
surprise, complaint, fear, or even acquiescence, from 
the very beginning of our troubles till now, when we 


TREASURE ISLAND 


137 


had laid him down in the log house to die. He had 
lain like a Trojan behind his mattress in the gallery ; 
he had followed every order silently, doggedly, and 
well ; he was the oldest of our party d?y a score of 
years ; and now, sullen, old, serviceable servant, it 
was he that was to die. 

The squire dropped down beside him on his knees 
and kissed his hand, crying like a child. 

“Be I going, doctor.?” he asked. 

“Tom, my man,” said I, “you’re going home.” 

“I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun 
first,” he replied. 

“Tom,” said the squire, “say you forgive me, won’t 
you.?” 

“Would that be respectful like, from me to you, 
squire.?” was the answer. “Howsoever so be it, 
amen !” 

After a little while of silence, he said he thought 
somebody might read a prayer. “It’s the custom, 
sir,” he added, apologetically. And not long after, 
without another word, he passed away. 

In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed 
to be wonderfully swollen about the chest and 
pockets, had turned out a great many various stores 
— the British colors, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, 
pen, ink, the log book, and pounds of tobacco. He 
had found the longish fir tree lying felled and cleared 
in the enclosure, and, with the help of Hunter, he 
had set it up at the corner of the log house where 
the trunks crossed and made an angle. Then, climb- 
ing on the roof, he had with his own hand bent and 
run up the colors. 

This seemed mightily to relieve him. He reentered 
the log house, and set about counting up the stores. 


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as if nothing else existed. But he had an eye on 
Tom’s passage for all that ; and as soon as all was 
over, came forward with another flag, and reverently 
spread it over the body. 

“Don’t you take on, sir,” he said, shaking the 
squire’s hand. “All’s well with him; no fear for a 
hand that’s been shot down in his duty to captain 
and owner. It mayn’t be good divinity, but it’s a 
fact.” 

Then he pulled me aside. 

“Dr. Livesey,” he said, “in how many weeks do 
you and squire expect the consort?” 

I told him it was a question, not of weeks, but of 
months ; that if we were not back by the end of 
August, Blandly was to send to find us ; but neither 
sooner nor later. “You can calculate for yourself,” 
I said. 

“Why, yes,” returned the captain, scratching his 
head, “and making a large allowance, sir, for all the 
gifts of Providence, I should say we were pretty close 
hauled.” 

“How do you mean?” I asked. 

“It’s a pity, sir, we lost that second load. That’s 
what I mean,” replied the captain. “As for powder 
and shot, we’ll do. But the rations are short, very 
short — so short. Dr. Livesey, that we’re perhaps, 
as well without that extra mouth.” 

And he pointed to the dead body under the flag. 

Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round-shot 
passed high above the roof of the log house and 
plumped far beyond us in the wood. 

“Oho !” said the captain. “Blaze away ! you’ve 
little enough powder already, my lads.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


139 


At the second trial, the aim was better, and the . 
ball descended inside the stockade, scattering a cloud 
of sand, but doing no further damage. 

“Captain,” said the squire, “the house is quite in- 
visible from the ship. It must be the flag they are 
aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it in.?” 

“Strike my colors!” cried the captain. “No, sir, 
not I ;” and, as soon as he had said the words, I 
think we all agreed with him. For it was not only a 
piece of stout, seamanly, good feeling; it was good 
policy besides, and showed our enemies that we de- 
spised their cannonade. 

All through the evening they kept thundering 
away. Ball after ball flew over or fell short, or 
kicked up the sand in the enclosure ; but they had to 
fire so high that the shot fell dead and buried itself 
in the soft sand. We had no ricochet to fear; and 
though one popped in through the roof of the log 
house and out again through the floor, we soon got 
used to that sort of horseplay, and minded it no more 
than cricket. 

“There is one thing good about all this,” observed 
the captain : “the wood in front of us is likely clear. 
The ebb has made a good while ; our stores should be 
uncovered. Volunteers to go and bring in pork.” 

Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward. 
Well armed, they stole out of the stockade; but it 
proved a useless mission. The mutineers were bolder 
than we fancied, or they put more trust in Israel’s 
gunnery. For four or five of them were busy carry- 
ing off our stores, and wading out with them to one 
of the gigs that lay close by, pulling an oar or so 
to hold her steady against the current. Silver was 
in the stern sheets in command; and every man of 


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them was now provided with a musket from some 
secret magazine of their own. 

The captain sat down to his log, and here is the 
beginning of the entry: 

“Alexander Smollett, master ; David Livesey, 
ship’s doctor ; Abraham Gray, carpenter’s mate ; 
John Trelawney, owner; John Hunter and Richard 
Joyce, owner’s servants, landsmen — being all that 
is left faithful of the ship’s company — with stores 
for ten days at short rations, came ashore this day, 
and flew British colors on the log house in Treasure 
Island. Thomas Redruth, owner’s servant, lands- 
man, shot by the mutineers ; James Hawkins, cabin- 
boy ” 

And at the same time I was wondering over poor 
Jim Hawkins’s fate. 

A hail on the land side. 

“Somebody hailing us,” said Hunter, who was on 
guard. 

“Doctor! Squire! Captain! Hullo, Hunter, is that 
you.^” came the cries. 

And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Hawkins, 
safe and sound, come climbing over the stockade. 


CHAPTER XIX 

NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS: 

THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE 

As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to a 
halt, stopped me by the arm, and sat down. 

“Now,” said he, “there’s your friends, sure 
enough.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


141 


“Far more likely it’s the mutineers,” I answered. 

“That!” he cried. “Why, in a place like this, 
where nobody puts in but gen’lemen of fortune. 
Silver would fly the Jolly Roger, you don’t make no 
doubt of that. No; that’s your friends. There’s 
been blows, too, and I reckon your friends has had 
the best of it ; and here they are ashore in the old 
stockade, as was made years and years ago by Flint. 
Ah, he was the man to have a headpiece, was Flint! 
Barring rum, his match were never seen. He were 
afraid of none, not he ; on’y Silver — Silver was that 
genteel.” 

“Well,” said I, “that may be so, and so be it ; all 
the more reason that I should hurry on and join my 
friends.” 

“Nay, mate,” returned Ben, “not you. You’re a 
good boy, or I’m mistook ; but you’re on’y a boy, all 
told. Now, Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn’t bring 
me there, where you’re going — not rum wouldn’t, 
till I see your born gen’lemen, and gets it on his word 
of honor. And you won’t forget my words : ‘A 
precious sight (that’s what you’ll say), a precious 
sight more confidence’ — and then nips him.” 

And he pinched me the third time with the same 
air of cleverness. 

“And when Ben Gunn is M^anted, you know where 
to find him, Jim. Just wheer you found him to-day. 
And him that comes is to have a white thing in his 
hand; and he’s to come alone. Oh! and you’ll say 
this : ‘Ben Gunn,’ says you, ‘has reasons of his own.’ ” 

“Well,” said I, “I believe I understand. You have 
something to propose, and 3^00 wish to see the squire 
or the doctor ; and you’re to be found where I found 
3’ou. Is that all.^” 


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“And when? says you,” he added. “Why, from 
about noon observation to about six bells.” 

“Good,” said I, “and now may I go?” 

“You won’t forget?” he inquired, anxiously. 
“Precious sight, and reasons of his own, says you. 
Reasons of his own ; that’s the mainstay ; as between 
man and man. Well, then” — still holding me — “I 
reckon you can go, Jim. And, Jim, if you was to 
see Silver, you wouldn’t go for to sell Ben Gunn? 
wild horses wouldn’t draw it from you? No, says you. 
And if them pirates camp ashore, Jim, what would 
you say but there’d be widders in the morning?” 

Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a 
cannon ball came tearing through the trees and 
pitched in the sand, not a hundred yards from where 
we two were talking. The next moment each of us 
had taken to his heels in a different direction. 

For a good hour to come frequent reports shook 
the island, and balls kept crashing through the 
woods. I moved from hiding place to hiding place, 
always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by these 
terrifying missiles. But toward the end of the bom- 
bardment, though still I durst not venture in the 
direction of the stockade, where the balls fell 
oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up my 
heart again ; and after a long detour to the east, 
crept down among the shore-side trees. 

The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling 
and tumbling in the woods, and ruffling the gray sur- 
face of the anchorage; the tide, too, was far out, 
and great tracts of sand lay uncovered ; the air, after 
the heat of the day, chilled me through my jacket. 

The Hispaniola still lay where she had anchored ; 
but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Roger — the 


TREASURE ISLAND 


143 


black flag of piracy — flying from her peak. Even 
as I looked, there came another red flash and another 
report, that sent the echoes clattering, and one more 
round-shot whistled through the air. It was the 
last of the cannonade. 

I lay for some time, watching the bustle which 
succeeded the attack. Men were demolishing some- 
thing with axes on the beach near the stockade ; the 
poor jolly-boat, I afterward discovered. Away, near 
the mouth of the river, a great fire was glowing 
among the trees, and between that point and the ship 
one of the gigs kept coming and going, the men, 
whom I had seen so gloomy, shouting at the oars like 
cliildren. But there was a sound in their voices which 
suggested rum. 

At length I thought I might return toward the 
stockade. I was pretty far down on the low, sandy 
spit that encloses the anchorage to the east, and is 
joined at* half water to Skeleton Island; and now, as 
I rose to my feet, I saw, some distance farther down 
the spit, and rising from among low bushes, an 
isolated rock, pretty high, and peculiarly white in 
color. It occurred to me that this might be the white 
rock of which Ben Gunn had spoken, and that some 
day or other a boat might be wanted, and I should 
know where to look for one. 

Then I skirted among the woods until I had re- 
gained the rear, or shoreward side, of the stockade, 
and was soon warmly welcomed by the faithful party. 

I had soon told my story, and began to look about 
me. The log house was made of unsquared trunks ' 
of pine — roof, walls and floor. The latter stood in 
several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half 
above the surface of the sand. There was a porch 


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at the door, and under this porch the little spring 
welled up into an artificial basin of a rather odd 
kind — no other than a great ship’s kettle of iron, 
w’ith the bottom knocked out, and sunk “to her 
bearings,” as the captain said, among the sand. 

Little had been left besides the framework of the 
house ; but in one corner there was a stone slab laid 
down by way of hearth, and an old rusty iron basket 
to contain the fire. 

The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the 
stockade had been cleared of timber to build the 
house, and we could see by the stumps what a fine 
and lofty grove had been destroyed. Most of the 
soil had been washed away or burled in drift after 
the removal of the trees ; only where the streamlet 
ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and 
some ferns and little creeping bushes were still green 
among the sand. Very close around the stockade — 
too close for defense, they said — the wood still 
flourished high and dense, all of fir on the land side, 
but toward the sea with a large admixture of live 
oaks. 

The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken, 
whistled through ever}’^ chink of the rude building, 
and sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine 
sand. There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth, 
sand in our suppers, sand dancing in the spring at 
the bottom of the kettle, for all the world like por- 
ridge beginning to boil. Our chimney was a square 
hole in the roof ; it was but a little part of the smoke 
that found its way out, and the rest eddied about the 
house, and kept us coughing and l^lping the eye. 

Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his face 
tied up in a bandage for a cut he had got in breaking 


TREASURE ISLAND 


145 


away from the mutineers; and that poor old Tom 
Redruth, still unburied, lay along the wall, stiff and 
stark, under the Union Jack. 

If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all 
have fallen in the blues, but Captain Smollett was 
never the man for that. All hands were called up 
before him, and he divided us into watches. The 
doctor, and Gray, and I, for one ; the squire. Hunter, 
and Joyce upon the other. Tired as we all were, 
two were sent out for firewood ; two more were set 
to dig a grave for Redruth ; the doctor was named 
cook ; I was put sentry at the door ; and the captain 
himself went from one to another, keeping up our 
spirits and lending a hand wherever it w^as wanted. 

From time to time the doctor came to the door for 
a little air and to rest his eyes, which were almost 
smoked out of his head ; and whenever he did so, he 
had a word for me. 

“Tliat man Smollett,” he said once, “is a better 
man than I am. And when I say that it means a 
deal, Jim.” 

Another time he came and was silent for a while. 
Then he put his head on one side, and looked at me. 

“Is this Ben Gunn a man.?” he asked. 

“I do not know, sir,” said I. “I am not very sure 
whether he’s sane.” 

“If there’s any doubt about the matter, he is,” 
returned the doctor. “A man who has been three 
years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim, can’t 
expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn’t 
He in human nature. Was it cheese you say he had 
a fancy for.^” 

“Yes, sir, cheese,” I answered. 


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“Well, Jim,” says he, “just see the good that 
comes of being dainty in your food. You’ve seen 
my snuffbox, haven’t you.? And you never saw me 
take snuff ; the reason being that in my snuffbox I 
carry a piece of Parmesan cheese — a cheese made in 
Italy, very nutritious. Well, that’s for Ben Gunn!” 

Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the 
sand, and stood round him for a while bareheaded in 
the breeze. A good deal of firewood had been got in, 
but not enough for the captain’s fancy ; and he 
shook his head over it, and told us we “must get back 
to this to-morrow rather livelier.” Then, when ^\e 
had eaten our pork, and each had a good stiff glass 
of brandy grog, the three chiefs got together in a 
corner to discuss our prospects. 

It appears they were at their wits’ end what to do, 
the stores being so low that we must have been 
starved into surrender long before help came. But 
our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the buc- 
caneers until they hauled down their flag or ran 
away with the Hispaniola. From nineteen they were 
already reduced to fifteen, two others were wounded, 
and one, at least — the man shot beside the gun — 
severely wounded, if he were not dead. Every time 
we had a crack at them, we were to take it, saving 
our own lives, with the extremest care. And, be- 
sides that, we had two able allies — rum and the 
climate. 

As for the first, though we were about half a mile 
away, we could hear them roaring and singing late 
into the night; and as for the second, the doctor 
staked his wig that, camped where they were in the 
marsh and unprovided with remedies, the half of them 
would be on their backs before a week. 


TREASURE ISL4ND 


147 


“So,” he added, “if we are not all shot down first 
they’ll be glad to be packing in the schooner. It’s 
always a ship, and they can get to buccaneering 
again, I suppose.” 

“First ship that ever I lost,” said Captain 
Smollett. 

I was dead tired, as you may fancy; and when I 
got to sleep, which was not till after a great deal of 
tossing, I slept like a log of wood. 

The rest had long been up, and had already 
breakfasted and increased the pile of firewood by 
about half as much again, when I was awakened by 
a bustle and the sound of voices. 

“Flag of truce !” I heard some one say ; and then, 
immediately after, with a cry of surprise, “Silver 
himself !” 

And, at that, up I jumped, and, rubbing my eyes, 
ran to a loophole in the wall. 


CHAPTER XX 
silver’s embassy 

Sure enough, there were two men just outside the 
stockade, one of them waving a white cloth ; the other, 
no less a person than Silver himself, standing placidly 
by. 

It was still quite early, and the coldest morning 
that I think I ever was abroad in ; a chill that pierced 
into the marrow. The sky was bright and cloudlep 
overhead, and the tops of the trees shone rosily in 
the sun. But where Silver stood with his lieutenant 


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all was still in shadow, and they waded knee-deep in 
a low, white vapor that had crawled during the night 
out of the morass. The chill and the vapor taken 
■together told a poor tale of the island. It was 
plainly a damp, feverish, unhealthy spot. 

“Keep indoors, men,” said the captain. “Ten to 
one this is a trick.” 

Then he hailed the buccaneer. 

“Who goes? Stand, or we fire.” 

“Flag of truce,” cried Silver. 

The captain was in the porch, keeping himself 
carefully out of the way of a treacherous shot should 
any be intended. He turned and spoke to us ; — 

“Doctor’s watch on the lookout. Dr. Livesey, 
take the north side, if you please; Jim, the east; 
Gray, west. The watch below, all hands to load 
muskets. Lively, men, and careful.” 

And then he turned again to the mutineers. 

“And what do you want with your flag of truce .^” 
he cried. 

This time it was the other man who replied. 

“Cap’n Silver, sir, to come on board and make 
terms,” he shouted. 

“Cap’n Silver! Don’t know him. Who’s he.^” 
cried the captain. And we could hear him adding 
to himself : “Cap’n, is it ? My heart, and here’s pro- 
motion !” 

Long John answered for himself. 

“Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me cap’n, 
after your desertion, sir” — laying a particular 
emphasis upon the word “desertion.” “We’re willing 
to submit, if we can come to terms, and no bones 
about it. All I ask is your word, Cap’n Smollett, to 
let me safe and sound out of this here stockade, and 


TREASURE ISLAND 


149 


one minute to get out o’ shot before a gun is fired.” 

‘•My man,” said Captain Smollett, “I have not 
the slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to 
talk to me, you can come, that’s all. If there’s any 
treachery, it’ll be on your side, and the Lord help 
you.” 

“That’s enough, cap’n,” shouted Long John 
cheerily. “A word from you’s enough. I know a 
gentleman, and you may lay to that.” 

We could see the man who carried the flag of truce 
attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that 
wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the cap- 
tain’s answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud, and 
slapped him on the back, as if the idea of alarm had 
been absurd. Then he advanced to the stockade, 
threw over his crutch, got a leg up, and with great 
vigor and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence 
and dropping safely to the other side. 

I will confess that I was far too much taken up 
with what was going on to be of the slightest use as 
sentry; indeed, I had already deserted my eastern 
loophole, and crept up behind the captain, who had 
now seated himself on the threshold, with his elbows 
on his knees, his head in his hands, and his eyes fixed 
on the water, as it bubbled out of the iron kettle in 
the sand. He was whistling to himself, “Come, 
Lasses and Lads.” 

Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll. 
What with the steepness of the incline, the thick tree 
stumps, and the soft sand, he and his crutch were as 
helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it like a 
man in silence, and at last arrived before the cap- 
tain, whom he saluted in the handsomest style. He 
was tricked out in his best; an immense blue coat. 


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thick with brass buttons, hung as low as to his knees, 
and a fine laced hat was set on the back of his head. 

“Here you are, my man,” said the captain, raising 
his head. “You had better sit down.” 

“You ain’t a-going to let me inside, cap’n?” com- 
plained Long John. “It’s a main cold morning, to 
be sure, sir, to sit outside upon the sand.” 

“Why, Silver,” said the captain, “if you had 
pleased to be an honest man, you might have been 
sitting in your galley. It’s your own doing. You’re 
either my ship’s cook — and then you were treated 
handsome — or Cap’n Silver, a common mutineer 
and pirate, and then you can go hang!” 

“Well, well, cap’n,” returned the sea cook, sitting 
down as he was bidden on the sand, “you’ll have to 
give me a hand up again, that’s all. A sweet pretty 
place you have of it here. Ah, there’s Jim 1 The top 
of the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, here’s my 
service. Why, there you all are together like a 
happy family, in manner of speaking.” 

“If you have anything to say, my man, better say 
it,” said the captain. 

“Right you were, Cap’n Smollett,” replied Silver. 
“Dooty is dooty, to be sure. Well, now, you look 
here, that was a good lay of yours last night. I 
don’t deny it was a good lay. Some of you pretty 
handy with a handspike end. And I’ll not deny 
neither but what some of my people was shook — 
maybe all was shook ; maybe I was shook myself ; 
maybe that’s why I’m here for terms. But you mark 
me, cap’n, it won’t do twice, by thunder! We’ll have 
to do sentry go and ease off a point or so on the 
rum. Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the 
wind’s eye. But I’ll tell you I was sober; I was 


TREASURE ISLAND 


151 


on’j dog tired; and if I’d awoke a second sooner I’d 
’a’ caught you at the act, I would. He wasn’t dead 
when I got round to him, not he.” 

“Well.?” says Captain Smollett, as cool as can be. 

All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you 
would never have guessed it from his tone. As for 
me, I began to have an inkling. Ben Gunn’s last 
words came back to my mind. I began to suppose 
that he had paid the buccaneers a visit while they all 
lay drunk together round their fire, and I reckoned 
up with glee that we had only fourteen enemies to 
deal with. 

“Well, here it is,” said Silver. “We want that 
treasure, and we’ll have it — that’s our point! You 
would just as soon save your lives, I reckon; and 
that’s yours. You have a chart, haven’t you.?” 

“That’s as may be,” replied the captain. 

“Oh, well, you have, I know that,” returned Long 
John. “You needn’t be so husky with a man; there 
ain’t a particle of service in that, and you may lay 
to it. What I mean is, we want your chart. Now, 
I never meant you no harm, myself.” 

“That won’t do with me, my man,” interrupted 
the captain. “We know exactly what you meant to 
do, and we don’t care; for now, you see, you can’t 
do it.” 

And the captain looked at him calmly, and pro- 
ceeded to fill a pipe. 

“If Abe Gray ” Silver broke out. 

“Avast there!” cried Mr. Smollett. “Gray told 
me nothing, and I asked him nothing; and what’s 
more I would see you and him and this whole island 
blown clean out of the water into blazes first. So 
there’s my mind for you, my man, on that.” 


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This little whifF of temper seemed to cool Silver 
down. He had been growing nettled before, but now 
he pulled himself together. 

“Like enough,” said he. “I would set no limits to 
what gentlemen might consider shipshape or might 
not, as the case were. And, seein’ as how you are 
about to take a pipe, cap’n. I’ll make so free as do 
likewise.” 

And he filled a pipe and lighted it ; and the two 
men sat silently smoking for quite a while, now look- 
ing each other in the face, now stopping their to- 
bacco, now leaning forward to spit. It was as good 
as the play to see them. 

“Now,” resumed Silver, “here it is. You give 
us the chart to get the treasure by, and drop shoot- 
ing poor seamen, and storing of their heads in while 
asleep. You do that, and we’ll offer you a choice. 
Either you come aboard along of us, once the 
treasure shipped, and then I’ll give you my affy- 
davy, upon my word of honor, to clap you somewhere 
safe ashore. Or, if that ain’t to your fancy, some 
of my hands being rough, and having old scores, on 
account of hazing, then you can stay here, you can. 
We’ll divide stores with you, man for man; and I’ll 
give m3' affy-davy, as before, to speak the first ship 
I sight, and send ’em here to pick you up. Now 
you’ll own that’s talking. Handsomer you couldn’t 
look to get, not you. And I hope” — raising his 
voice — “that all hands in this here blockhouse will 
overhaul my words, for what is spoke to one is spoke 
to all.” 

Captain Smollett rose from his seat, and knocked 
out the ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left • 
hand. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


153 


“Is that all?” he asked. 

“Every last word, by thunder!” answered John. 
“Refuse that, and you’ve seen the last of me but 
musket balls.” 

“Very good,” said the captain. “Now you’ll hear 
me. If you’ll come up one by one, unarmed. I’ll 
engage to clap you all in irons and take you home 
to a fair trial in England. If you won’t, my name 
is Alexander Smollett, I’ve flown my sovereign’s 
colors, and I’ll see you all to Davy Jones. You can’t 
find the treasure. You can’t sail the ship — there’s 
not a man among you fit to sail the ship. You can’t 
fight us — Gray, there, got away from five of you. 
Your ship’s in irons. Master Silver; you’re on a lee 
shore, and so you’ll find. I stand here and tell you 
so; and they’re the last good words you’ll get from 
me ; for, in the name of heaven. I’ll put a bullet in 
your back when next I meet you. Tramp, my lad. 
Bundle out of this, please, hand over hand, and 
double quick.” 

Silver’s face was a picture ; his eyes started in his 
head with wrath. He shook the fire out of his pipe. 

“Give me a hand up I” he cried. 

“Not I,” returned the captain. 

“Who’ll give me a hand up?” he roared. 

Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest 
imprecations, he crawled along the sand till he got 
hold of the porch and could hoist himself again upon 
his crutch. Then he spat into the spring. 

“There!” he cried, “that’s what I think of ye. 
Before an hour’s out. I’ll stove in your old block- 
house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, 
laugh! Before an hour’s out, ye’ll laugh upon the 
other side. Them that die’ll be the lucky ones.” 


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And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, plowed 
down the sand, was helped across the stockade, after 
four or five failures, by the man with the flag of 
truce, and disappeared in an instant afterward 
among the trees. 


CHAPTER XXI 

THE ATTACK 

As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who 
had been closely watching him, turned toward the 
interior of the house, and found not a man of us at 
his post but Gray. It was the first time we had ever 
seen him angry. 

“Quarters !” he roared. And then, as we all slunk 
back to our places, “Gray,” he said, “I’ll put your 
name in the log; you’ve stood by your duty like a 
seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I’m surprised at you, sir. 
Doctor, I thought you had worn the king’s coat ! If 
that was how you served at Fontenoy, sir, you’d 
have been better in your berth.” 

The doctor’s watch were all back at their loop- 
holes, the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, 
and every one with a red face, you may be certain, 
and a flea in his ear, as the saying is. 

The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then 
he spoke. 

“My lads,” said he, “I’ve given Silver a broadside. 
I pitched it in red-hot on purpose; and before the 
hour’s out, as he said, we shall be boarded. We’re 
outnumbered, I needn’t tell you that, but we fight in 


TREASURE ISLAND 


155 


shelter; and, a minute ago, I should have said we 
fought with discipline. I’ve no manner of doubt that 
we can drub them, if you choose.” 

Then he went the rounds, and saw, as he said, that 
all was clear. 

On the two short sides of the house, east and west, 
there were only two loopholes; on the south side 
where the porch was, two again; and on the north 
side, five. There was a round score of muskets for 
the seven of us ; the firewood had been built into four 
piles — tables, you might say — one about the 
middle of each side, and on each of these tables some 
ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready 
to the hand of the defenders. In the middle, the 
cutlasses lay ranged. 

“Toss out the fire,” said the captain; “the chill is 
past, and we mustn’t have smoke in our eyes.” 

The iron fire basket was carried bodily out by Mr. 
Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand. 

“Hawkins hasn’t had his breakfast. Hawkins, 
help yourself, and back to your post to eat it,” con- 
tinued Captain Smollett. “Lively, now, my lad ; 
you’ll want it before you’ve done. Hunter, serve out 
a round of brandy to all hands.” 

And while this was going on, the captain com- 
pleted, in his own mind, the plan of the defense. 

“Doctor, you will take the door,” he resumed. 
“See, and don’t expose yourself ; keep within, and 
fire through the porch. Hunter, take the east side, 
there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. 
Trelawney, you are the best shot — you and Gray 
will take this long north side, with the five loopholes ; 
it’s there the danger is. If they can get up to it, 
and fire in upon us through our own ports, things 


156 


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would begin to look dirty. Hawkins, neither you 
nor I are much account at the shooting; we’ll stand 
by to load and bear a hand.” 

As the captain had said, the chill was past. As 
soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees, 
it fell with all its force upon the clearing, and drank 
up the vapors at a draught. Soon the sand was 
baking, and the resin melting in the logs of the 
blockhouse. Jackets and coats were flung aside; 
shirts thrown open at the neck, and rolled up to the 
shoulders ; and we stood there, each at his post, in a 
fever of heat and anxiety. 

An hour passed away. 

“Hang them!” said the captain. “This is as dull 
as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind.” 

And just at that moment came the first news of 
the attack. 

“If you please, sir,” said Joyce, “if I see any one 
am I to fire.'*” 

“I told you so!” cried the captain. 

“Thank you, sir,” returned Joyce, with the same 
quiet civility. 

Nothing followed for a time; but the remark had 
set us all on the alert, straining ears and eyes — the 
musketeers with their pieces balanced in their hands, 
the captain out in the middle of the blockhouse, with 
his mouth very tight and a frown on his face. 

So some seconds passed, till suddenly J oyce whip- 
ped up his musket and fired. The report had 
scarcely died away ere it was repeated and repeated 
from without and a scattering volley, shot behind 
shot, like a string of geese, from every side of the 
enclosure. Several bullets struck the log house, but 
not one entered; and, as the smoke cleared away 


TREASURE ISLAND 


157 


and vanished, the stockade and the woods around it 
looked as quiet and empty as before. Not a bough 
waved, not the gleam of a musket barrel betrayed 
the presence of our foes. 

“Did you hit your man.?” asked the captain. 

“No, sir,” replied Joyce. “I believe not, sir.” 

“Next best thing to tell the truth,” muttered Cap- 
tain Smollett. “Load his gun, Hawkins. How many 
should you say there were on your side, doctor.?” 

“I know precisely,” said Dr. Livesey. “Three 
shots were fired on this side. I saw the three flashes 
— two close together — one farther to the west.” 

“Three!” repeated the captain. “And how many 
on yours, Mr. Trelawney?” 

But this was not so easily answered. There had 
come many from the north — seven, by the squire’s 
computation ; eight or nine, according to Gray. 
From the east and west only a single shot had been 
fired. It was plain, therefore, that the attack would 
be developed from the north, and that on the other 
three sides we were only to be annoyed by a show of 
hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no change 
in his arrangements. If the mutineers succeeded in 
crossing the stockade, he argued, they would take 
possession of any unprotected loophole, and shoot us 
down like rats in our own stronghold. 

Nor had we much time left to us for thought. 
Suddenly, with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates 
leaped from the woods on the north side, and ran 
straight on the stockade. At the same moment, the 
fire was once more opened from the woods, and a rifle 
ball sang through the doorway, and knocked the 
doctor’s musket into bits. 


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The boarders swarmed over the fence like mon- 
keys. Squire and Gray fired again and yet again ; 
three men fell, one forward into the enclosure, two 
back on the outside. But of these, one was evidently 
more frightened than hurt, for he was on his feet 
again in a crack, and instantly disappeared among 
the trees. 

Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four made 
good their footing inside our defenses ; while from 
the shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each 
evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a 
hot though useless fire on the log house. 

The four who had boarded made straight before 
them for the building, shouting as they ran, and the 
men among the trees shouted back to encourage them. 
Several shots were fired ; but such was the hurry of 
the marksmen, that not one appears to have taken 
effect. In a moment, the four pirates had swarmed 
up the mound and were upon us. 

The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, ap- 
peared at the middle loophole. 

“At ’em, all hands — all hands !” he roared, in a 
voice of thunder. 

At the same moment, another pirate grasped 
Hunter’s musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his 
hands, plucked it through the loophole, and, with 
one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on 
the floor. Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all 
round the house, appeared suddenly in the doorway, 
and fell with his cutlass on the doctor. 

Our position was utterly reversed. A moment 
since we were firing, under cover, at an exposed 
enemy ; now it was we who lay uncovered, and could 
not return a blow. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


159 


The log house was full of smoke, to which we owed 
our comparative safety. Cries and confusion, the 
flashes and reports of pistol shots, and one loud 
groan, rang in my ears. 

“Out, lads, out, and fight ’em in the open! Cut- 
lasses !” cried the captain. 

I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and some one, 
at the same time snatching another, gave me a cut 
across the knuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed 
out of the door into the clear sunlight. Some one 
was close behind, I knew not whom. Right in front, 
the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, 
and, just as my eyes fell upon him, beat down his 
guard, and sent him sprawling on his back, with a 
great slash across the face. 

“Round the house, lads I round the house !” cried 
the captain ; and even in the hurly-burly I perceived 
a change in his voice. 

Mechanically, I obeyed, turned eastward, and with 
my cutlass raised, ran round the corner of the 
house. Next moment I was face to face with Ander- 
son. He roared aloud, and his hanger went up above 
his head, flashing in the sunlight. I had not time to 
be afraid, but, as the blow still hung impending, 
leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing my foot 
in the soft sand, rolled headlong down the slope. 

When I had first sallied from the door, the other 
mutineers had been already swarming up the palisade 
to make an end of us. One man, in a red nightcap, 
with his cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon the 
top and thrown a leg across. Well, so short had 
been the interval, that when I found my feet again 
all was in the same posture, the fellow with the red 
nightcap still halfway over, another still just show- 


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ing his head above the top of the stockade. And yet, 
in this breath of time, the fight was over, and the 
victory was ours. 

Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the 
big boatswain ere he had time to recover from his 
lost blow. Another had been shot at a loophole in 
the very act of firing into the house, and now lay in 
agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, 
as I had seen, the doctor had disposed of at a blow. 
Of the four who had scaled the palisade, one only 
remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his 
cutlass on the field, was now clambering out again 
with the fear of death upon him. 

“Fire — fire from the house !” cried the doctor. 
“And you, lads, back into cover.” 

But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, 
and the last boarder made good his escape, and dis- 
appeared with the rest into the wood. In three 
seconds nothing remained of the attacking party 
but the five who had fallen, four on the inside, and 
one on the outside, of the palisade. 

The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for 
shelter. The survivors would soon be back where 
they had left their muskets, and at any moment the 
fire might commence. 

The house was by this time somewhat cleared of 
smoke, and we saw at a glance the price we had paid 
for victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, 
stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, never 
to move again; while right in the center, the squire 
was supporting the captain, one as pale as the other. 

“The captain’s wounded,” said Mr. Trelawney. 

“Have they run.?*” asked Mr. Smollett. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


161 


“All that could, you may be bound,” returned the 
doctor ; “but there’s five of them will never run 
again.” 

“Five!” cried the captain. “Come, that’s better. 
Five against three leaves us four to nine. That’s 
better odds than we had at starting. We were seven 
to nineteen then, or thought we were, and that’s as 
bad to bear.”^ 


IThe mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man 
shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same 
evening of his wound. But this was, of course, not known till 
after by the faithful party. 


PART V 


MY SEA ADVENTURE 


CHAPTER XXII 

HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE 

There was no return of the mutineers — not so 
much as another shot out of the woods. They had 
“got their rations for that day,” as the captain put 
it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet 
time to overhaul the wounded and get dinner. Squire 
and I cooked outside in spite of the danger, and even 
outside we could hardly tell what we were at, for 
horror of the loud groans that reached us from the 
doctor’s patients. 

Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action, 
only three still breathed — that one of the pirates 
who had been shot at the loophole. Hunter, and Cap- 
tain Smollett ; and of these the first two were as 
good as dead; the mutineer, indeed, died under the 
doctor’s knife, and Hunter, do what we could, never 
recovered consciousness in this world. He lingered 
all day, breathing loudly like the old buccaneer at 
home in his apoplectic fit ; but the bones of his chest 
had been crushed by the blow and his skull fractured 
in falling, and some time in the following night, with- 
out sign or sound, he went to his Maker. 

162 


TREASURE ISLAND 


163 


As for the captain, his wounds were grievous in- 
deed, but not dangerous. No organ was fatally in- 
jured. Anderson’s ball — for it was Job that shot 
him first — had broken his shoulder blade and 
touched the lung, not badly; the second had only 
torn and displaced some muscles in the calf. He was 
sure to recover, the doctor said, but, in the meantime, 
and for weeks to come, he must not walk nor move 
his arm, nor so much as speak when he could help 
it. 

My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a 
fleabite. Dr. Livesey patched it up with plaster, and 
pulled my ears for me into the bargain. 

After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the 
captain’s side a while in consultation ; and when they , 
had talked to their hearts’ content, it being then a 
little past noon, the doctor took up his hat and 
pistols, girt on a cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, 
and with a musket over his shoulder, crossed the 
palisade on the north side, and set off briskly 
through the trees. 

Gray and I were sitting together at the far end 
of the blockhouse, to be out of earshot of our officers’ 
consulting ; and Gray took his pipe out of his mouth 
and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunder- 
struck he was at this occurrence. 

“Why, in the name of Davy Jones,” said he, “is 
Dr. Livesey mad.?” 

“Why, no,” says I. “He’s about the last of this 
crew for that, I take it.” 

“Well, shipmate,” said Gray, “mad he may not be ; 
but if he's not, you mark my words, I am.” 

“I take it,” replied I, “the doctor has his idea; 
and if I am right, he’s going now to see Ben Gunn.” 


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I was right, as appeared later; but, in the mean- 
time, the house being stifling hot, and the little patch 
of sand inside the palisade ablaze with midday sun, 
I began to get another thought into my Head, which 
was not by any means so right. What I began to 
do was to envy the doctor, walking in the cool 
shadow of the woods, with the birds about him, and 
the pleasant smell of the pines, while I sat grilling, 
with my clothes stuck to the hot resin, and so much 
blood about me, and so many poor dead bodies lying 
all around, that I took a disgust of the place that 
was almost as strong as fear. 

All the time I was washing out the blockhouse, and 
then washing up the things from dinner, this disgust 
and envy kept growing stronger and stronger, till 
at last, being near a bread bag, and no one then 
observing me, I took the first step toward my 
escapade, and filled both pockets of my coat with 
biscuit. 

I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going 
to do a foolish, overbold act ; but I was determined 
to do it with all the precautions in my power. These 
biscuits, should anything befall me, would keep me, 
at least, from starving till far in the next day. 

The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of 
pistols, and as I already had a powderhorn and 
bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms. 

As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a 
bad one in itself. I was to go down the sandy spit 
that divides the anchorage on the east from the open 
sea, find the white rock I had observed last evening 
and ascertain whether it was there or not that Ben 
Gunn had hidden his boat ; a thing quite worth doing, 
as I still believe. But as I was certain I should 


TREASURE ISLAND 


165 


not be allowed to leave the enclosure, my only plan 
was to take French leave, and slip out when nobody 
was watching; and that was so bad a way of doing 
it as made the thing itself wrong. But I was only a 
boy, and I had made my mind up. 

Well, as things at last fell out, I found an ad- 
mirable opportunity. The squire and Gray were 
busy helping the captain with his bandages ; the 
coast was clear ; I made a bolt for it over the 
stockade and into the thickest of the trees, and be- 
fore my absence was observed I was out of cry of 
my companions. 

This was my second folly, far worse than the first, 
as I left but two sound men to guard the house ; but 
like the first, it was a help toward saving all of us. 

I took my way straight for the east coast of the 
island, for I was determined to go down the sea side 
of the spit to avoid all chance of observation from 
the anchorage. It was already late in the afternoon, 
although still warm and sunny. As I continued to 
thread the tall woods I could hear from far before 
me not only the continuous thunder of the surf, but 
a certain tossing of foliage and grinding of boughs 
which showed me the sea breeze had set in higher 
than usual. Soon cool draughts of air began to 
reach me ; and a few steps farther I came forth into 
the open borders of the grove, and saw the sea lying 
blue and sunny to the horizon, and the surf tumbling 
and tossing its foam along the beach. 

I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure 
Island. The sun might blaze overhead, the air be 
without a breath, the surface smooth and blue, but 
still these great rollers would be running along all 
the external coast, thundering and thundering by 


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day and night ; and I scarce believe there is one spot 
in the island where a man would be out of earshot 
of their noise. 

I walked along beside the surf with great enjoy- 
ment, till, thinking I was now got far enough to the 
south, I took the cover of some thick bushes, and 
crept warily up to the ridge of the spit. 

Behind me was the sea, in front the anchorage. 
The sea breeze, as though it had the sooner blown 
itself out by its unusual violence, was already at an 
end ; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs 
from the south and southeast, carrying great banks 
of fog; and the anchorage, under lee of Skeleton 
Island, lay still and leaden as when first we entered 
it. The Hispaniola, in that unbroken mirror, was 
exactly portrayed from the truck to the water line, 
the Jolly Roger hanging from her peak. 

Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stem 
sheets — him I could always recognize — while a 
couple of men were leaning over the stern bulwarks, 
one of them with a red cap — the very rogue that I 
had seen some hours before stridelegs upon the 
palisade. Apparently they were talking and laugh- 
ing, though at that distance — upward of a mile — 
I could, of course, hear no word of what was said. 
All at once, there began the most horrid, unearthly 
screaming, which at first startled me badly, though 
I had soon remembered the voice of Captain Flint, 
and even thought I could make out the bird by her 
bright plumage as she sat perched upon her master’s 
wrist. 

Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for 
shore, and the man with the red cap and his comrade 
went below by the cabin companion. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


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Just about the same time the sun had gone down 
behind the Spyglass, and as the fog was collecting 
rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I saw I 
must lose no time if I were to find the boat that 
evening. 

The white rock, visible enough above the brush, 
was still some eighth of a mile farther down the spit, 
and it took me a goodish while to get up with it, 
crawling, often on all fours, among the scrub. Night 
had almost come when I laid my hand on its rough 
sides. Right below it there was an exceedingly small 
hollow of green turf, hidden by banks and a thick 
underwood about knee-deep, that grew there very 
plentifully ; and in the center of the dell, sure 
enough, a little tent of goatskins, like what the 
gypsies carry about with them in England. 

I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the 
tent, and there was Ben Gunn’s boat — homemade 
if ever anything was homemade: a rude, lopsided 
framework of tough wood, and stretched upon that a 
covering of goatskin, with the hair inside. The 
thing was extremely small, even for me, and I could 
hardly imagine that it could have floated with a full 
sized man. There was one thwart set as low as 
possible, a kind of stretcher in the bows, and a double 
paddle for propulsion. 

I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient 
Britons made, but I have seen one since, and I can 
give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn’s boat than by 
saying it was like the first and the worst coracle 
ever made by man. But the great advantage of the 
coracle it certainly possessed, for it was exceedingly 
light and portable. 


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Well, now that I had found the boat, you would 
have thought I had had enough of truantry for once ; 
but, in the meantime, I had taken another notion, 
and become so obstinately fond of it, that I would 
have carried it out, I believe, in the teeth of Captain 
Smollett himself. This was to slip out under cover 
of the night, cut the Hispaniola adrift, and let her 
go ashore where she fancied. I had quite made up 
my mind that the mutineers, after their repulse of 
the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts than 
to up anchor and away to sea; this, I thought, it 
would be a fine thing to prevent ; and now that I had 
seen how they left their watchmen unprovided with a 
boat, I thought it might be done with little risk. 

Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a 
hearty meal of biscuit. It was a night out of ten 
thousand for my purpose. The fog had now buried 
all heaven. As the last rays of daylight dwindled 
and disappeared, absolute blackness settled down on 
Treasure Island. And when, at last, I shouldered 
the coracle, and groped my way stumblingly out of 
the hollow' w'here I had supped, there were but two 
points visible on the whole anchorage. 

One was the great fire on shore, by which the de- 
feated pirates lay carousing in the swamp. The 
other, a mere blur of light upon the darkness, indi- 
cated the position of the anchored ship. She had 
swung round to the ebb — her bow was now toward 
me — the only lights on board were in the cabin ; 
and what I saw was merely a reflection on the fog 
of the strong rays that flowed from the stern window. 

The ebb had already run some time, and I had to 
w'ade through a long belt of swampy sand, where I 


TREASURE ISLAND 


169 


sank several times above the ankle, before I came to 
the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little 
way in, with some strength and dexterity, set my 
coracle, keel downward, on the surface. 


CHAPTER XXIII 

THE EBB TIDE BUNS 

The coracle — as I had ample reason to know be- 
fore I was done with her — was a very safe boat for 
a person of my height and weight, both buoyant and 
clever in a seaway; but she was the most cross- 
grained, lopsided craft to manage. Do as you 
pleased, she always made more leeway than anything 
else, and turning round and round was the maneuver 
she was best at. Even Ben Gunn himself has ad- 
mitted that she was “queer to handle till you knew 
her way.” 

Certainly I did not know her way. She turned 
in every direction but the one I was bound to go ; 
the most part of the time we were broadside on, and 
I am very sure I never should have made the ship 
at all but for the tide. By good fortune, paddle as 
I pleased, the tide was still sweeping me down ; and 
there lay the Hispaniola right in the fair way, hardly 
to be missed. 

First she loomed before me like a blot of something 
yet blacker than darkness, then her spars and hull 
began to take shape, and the next moment, as it 
seemed ( for, the farther I went, the brisker grew the 


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current of the ebb), I was alongside of her hawser, 
and had laid hold. 

The hawser was as taut as a bowstring — so 
strong she pulled upon her anchor. All round the 
hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled 
and chattered like a little mountain stream. One cut 
with my sea gully, and the Hispaniola would go hum- 
ming down the tide. 

So far so good; but it next occurred to my recol- 
lection that a taut hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing 
as dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten to one, if I 
were so foolhardy as to cut the Hispaniola from her 
anchor, I and the coracle would be knocked clean out 
of the water. 

This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune had 
not again particularly favored me, I should have 
had to abandon my design. But the light airs which 
had begun blowing from the southeast and south had 
hauled round after nightfall into the southwest. 
Just while I was meditating, a puff came, caught the 
Hispaniola, and forced her up into the current ; and 
to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my 
grasp, and the hand by which I held it dip for a 
second under water. 

With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, 
opened it with my teeth, and cut one strand after 
another, till the vessel only swung by two. Then I 
lay quiet, waiting to sever these last when the strain 
should be once more lightened by a breath of wind. 

All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices 
from the cabin ; but, to say truth, my mind had been 
so entirely taken up with other thoughts that I had 
scarcely given ear. Now, however, when I had 
nothing else to do, I began to pay more heed. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


171 


One I recognized for the coxswain’s, Israel Hands, 
that had been Flint’s gunner in former days. The 
other was, of course, my friend of the red nightcap. 
Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they 
were still drinking; for, even while I was listening, 
one of them, with a drunken cry, opened the stern 
window and threw out something, which I divined 
to be an empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy ; 
it was plain that they were furiously angry. Oaths 
flew like hailstones, and every now and then there 
came forth such an explosion as I thought was sure 
to end in blows. But each time the quarrel passed 
off, and the voices grumbled lower for a while, until 
the next crisis came, and, in its turn, passed away 
without result. 

On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp 
fire burning warmly through the shore-side trees. 
Some one was singing, a dull, old, droning sailor’s 
song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every 
verse, and seemingly no end to it at all but the 
patience of the singer. I had heard it on the voyage 
more than once, and remembered these words : — 

“But one man of her crew alive. 

What put to sea with seventy-five.” 

And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully 
appropriate for a company that had met such cruel 
losses in the morning. But, indeed, from what I 
saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea 
they sailed on. 

At last the breeze came; the schooner sidled and 
drew near in the dark ; I felt the hawser slacken once 
more, and with a good, tough effort, cut the last 
fibers through. 


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The breeze had put but little action on the coracle, 
and I was almost instantly swept against the bows 
of the Hispaniola. At the same time the schooner 
began to turn upon her heel, spinning slowly, end for 
end, across the current. 

I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every 
moment to be swamped ; and since I found I could 
not push the coracle directly off, I now shoved 
straight astern. At length I was clear of my danger- 
ous neighbor; and just as I gave the last impulsion, 
my hands came across a light cord that was trailing 
overboard across the stern bulwarks. Instantly I 
grasped it. 

Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It 
was at first mere instinct ; but once I had it in my 
hands and found it fast, curiosity began to get the 
upper hand, and I determined I should have one look 
through the cabin window. 

I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, when 
I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk 
to about half my height, and thus commanded the 
roof and a slice of the interior of the cabin. 

By this time the schooner and her little consort 
were gliding pretty swiftly through the water; in- 
deed, we had already fetched up level with the camp 
fire. The ship was talking, as sailors say, loudly, 
treading the innumerable ripples with an incessant 
weltering splash; and until I got my eye above the 
window sill I could not comprehend why the watch- 
man had taken no alarm. One glance, however, was 
sufficient; and it was only one glance that I durst 
take from that unsteady skiff. It showed me Hands 
and his companion locked together in deadly wrestle, 
each with a hand upon the other’s throat. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


173 


I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, 
for I was near overboard. I could see nothing for 
the moment but these two furious, encrimsoned faces, 
swaying together under the smoky lamp ; and I shut 
my eyes to let them grow once more familiar with 
the darkness. 

The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and 
the whole diminished company about the camp fire 
had broken into the chorus I had heard so often : — 

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — 

Yo-ho-iho, and a bottle of rum! 

Drink and the devil bad done for the rest — 
Yo'ho^ho, and a bottle of rum!” 

I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil 
were at that very moment in the cabin of the 
Hispaniola, when I was surprised by a sudden lurch 
of the coracle. At the same moment she yawed 
sharply and seemed to change her course. The 
speed in the meantime had strangely increased. 

I opened my eyes at once. All round me were little 
ripples, combing over with a sharp, bristling sound 
and slightly phosphorescent. The Hispaniola her- 
self, a few yards in whose wake I was still being 
whirled along, seemed to stagger in her course, and 
I saw her spars toss a little against the blackness of 
the night ; nay, as I looked longer, I made sure she 
also was wheeling to the southward. 

1 glanced over my shoulder, and my heart jumped 
against my ribs. There, right behind me, was the 
glow of the camp fire. The current had turned at, 
right angles, sweeping round along with it the tall 
schooner and the little dancing coracle ; ever quick- 
ening, ever bubbling higher, ever muttering louder, it 
went spinning through the narrows for the open sea. 


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Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a vio- 
lent yaw, turning, perhaps, through twenty degrees ; 
and almost at the same moment one shout followed 
another from on board ; I could hear feet pounding 
on the companion ladder ; and I knew that the two 
drunkards had at last been interrupted in their 
quarrel and awakened to a sense of their disaster. 

I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched 
skiff, and devoutly recommended my spirit to its 
Maker. At the end of the straits, I made sure we 
must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where 
all my troubles would be ended speedily ; and though 
I could, perhaps, bear to die, I could not bear to 
look upon my fate as it approached. 

So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten 
to and fro upon the billows, now and again wetted 
with flying sprays, and never ceasing to expect death 
at the next plunge. Gradually weariness grew upon 
me; a numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon my 
mind even in the midst of my terrors ; until sleep at 
last supervened, and in my sea-tossed coracle I lay 
and dreamed of home and the old “Admiral Benbow.” 


CHAPTER XXIV 

THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE 

It was broad day when I awoke, and found myself 
tossing at the southwest end of Treasure Island. 
The sun was up, but was still hid from me behind 
the great bulk of the Spyglass, which on this side 
descended almost to the sea, in formidable cliffs. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


175 


Haulbowline Head and Mizzenmast Hill were at 
my elbow ; the hill bare and dark, the head bound 
with cliffs forty or fifty feet high, and fringed with 
great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter 
of a mile to seaward, and it was my first thought to 
paddle in and land. 

That notion was soon given over. Among the 
fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed; loud 
reverberations, heavy sprays flying and falling, suc- 
ceeded one another from second to second ; and I saw 
myself, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon 
the rough shore, or spending my strength in vain to 
scale the beetling crags. 

Nor was that all; for crawling together on flat 
tables of rock, or letting themselves drop into the sea 
with loud reports, I beheld huge slimy monsters — 
soft snails, as it were, of incredible bigness — two or 
three score of them together, making the rocks to 
echo with their barkings. 

I have understood since that they were sea lions 
and entirely harmless. But the look of them, added 
to the difficulty of the shore and the high running 
of the surf, was more than enough to disgust me of 
that landing place. I felt willing rather to starve at 
sea than to confront such perils. 

In the meantime I had a better chance, as I sup- 
posed, before me. North of Haulbowline Head, the 
lands runs in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a long 
stretch of yellow sand. To the north of that, again, 
there comes another cape — Cape of the Woods, as 
it Avas marked upon the chart — buried in tall green 
pines, which descended to the margin of the sea. 

1 remembered what Silver had said about the cur- 
rent that sets northward along the whole west coast 


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of Treasure Island; and seeing from my position 
that I was already under its influence, I preferred to 
leave Haulbowline Head behind me, and reserve my 
strength for an attempt to land upon the kindlier 
looking Cape of the Woods. 

There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. 
The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, 
there was no contrariety between that and the cur- 
rent, and the billows rose and fell unbroken. 

Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have 
perished; but as it was, it is surprising how easily 
and securely my little and light boat could ride. 
Often, as I still lay at the bottom, and kept no more 
than an eye above the gunwale, I would see a big 
blue summit heaving close above me ; yet the coracle 
would but bounce a little, dance as if on springs, and 
subside on the other side into the trough as lightly 
as a bird. 

I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat 
up to try my skill at paddling. But even a small 
change in the disposition of the weight will produce 
violent changes in the behavior of a coracle. And I 
had hardly moved before the boat, giving up at once 
her gentle dancing movement, ran straight down a 
slope of water so steep that it made me giddy, and 
struck her nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the 
side of the next wave. 

I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly 
back into my old position, whereupon the coracle 
seemed to find her head again, and led me as softly 
as before among the billows. It was plain she was 
not to be interfered with, and, at that rate, since I 
could in no way influence her course, what hope had 
I left of reaching land.^ 


TREASURE ISLAND 


177 


I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my 
head, for all that. First, moving with all care, I 
gradually bailed out the coracle with my sea cap ; 
then getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I 
set myself to study how it was she managed to slip 
so quietly through the rollers. 

I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, 
glossy mountain it looks from shore, or from a 
vessel’s deck, was for all the world like any range 
of hills on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth 
places and valleys. The coracle, left to herself, 
turning from side to side, threaded, so to speak, her 
way through these lower parts, and avoided the steep 
slopes and higher, toppling summits of the wave. 

“Well, now,” thought I to myself, “it is plain I 
must lie where I am, and not disturb the balance; 
but it is plain, also, that I can put the paddle over 
the side, and from time to time, in smooth places, 
give her a shove or two toward land.” No sooner 
thought upon than done. There I lay on my elbows, 
in the most trying attitude, and every now and again 
gave a weak stroke or two to turn her head to shore. 

It was very tiring, and slow work, yet I did visibly 
gain ground; and, as we drew near the Cape of the 
Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss that 
point, I had still made some hundred yards of 
easting. I was, indeed, close in. I could see the 
cool, green tree tops swaying together in the breeze, 
and I felt sure I should make the next promontory 
without fail. 

It was high time, for I now began to be tortured 
with thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its 
thousandfold reflection from the waves, the sea water 
that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips 


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with salt, combined to make my throat burn and my 
brain ache. The sight of the trees so near at hand 
had almost made me sick with longing; but the cur- 
rent had soon carried me past the point ; and, as the 
next reach of sea opened out, I beheld a sight that 
changed the nature of my thoughts. 

Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I 
beheld the Hispaniola under sail. I made sure, of 
course, that I should be taken; but I was so dis- 
tressed for want of water, that I scarce knew whether 
to be glad or sorry at the thought ; and, long before 
I had come to a conclusion, surprise had taken entire 
possession of my mind, and I could do nothing but 
stare and wonder. 

The Hispaniola was under her mainsail and two 
jibs, and the beautiful white canvas shone in the sun 
like snow or silver. When I first sighted her, all her 
sails were drawing; she was lying a course about 
northwest; and I presumed the men on board were 
going round the island on their way back to the 
anchorage. Presently she began to fetch more and 
more to the westward, so that I thought they had 
sighted me and were going about in chase. At last, 
however, she fell right into the wind’s eye, was taken 
dead aback, and stood there a while helpless, with 
her sails shivering. 

“Clumsy fellows,” said I ; “they must still be 
drunk as owls.” And I thought how Captain Smollett 
would have set them skipping. 

Meanwhile, the schooner gradually fell off, and 
filled again upon another tack, sailed swiftly for a 
minute or so, and brought up once more dead in the 
wind’s eye. Again and again was this repeated. To 
and fro, up and down, north, south, east, and west. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


179 


the Hispaniola sailed by swoops and dashes, and at 
each repetition ended as she had begun, with idly 
flapping canvas. It became plain to me that nobody 
was steering. And, if so, where were the men.^ 
Either they were dead drunk, or had deserted her, I 
thought, and perhaps if I could get on board, I 
might return the vessel to her captain. 

The current was bearing coracle and schooner 
southward at an equal rate. As for the latter’s sail- 
ing, it was so wild and intermittent, and she hung 
each time so long in irons, that she certainly gained 
nothing, if she did not even lose. If only I dared to 
sit up and paddle, I made sure that I could overhaul 
her. The scheme had an air of adventure that in- 
spired me, and the thought of the water breaker 
beside the fore companion doubled my growing 
courage. 

Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by an- 
other cloud of spray, but this time stuck to my 
purpose; and set myself, with all my strength and 
caution, to paddle after the unsteered Hispaniola. 
Once I shipped a sea so heavy that I had to stop 
and bail, with my heart fluttering like a bird; but 
gradually I got into the way of the thing, and guided 
my coracle among the waves, with only now and then 
a blow upon her bows and a dash of foam in my 
face. 

I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner; I 
could see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged 
about; and still no soul appeared upon her decks. 
I could not choose but suppose she was deserted. If 
not, the men were lying drunk below, where I might 
batten them down, perhaps, and do what I chose with 
the ship. 


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For some time she had been doing the worst thing 
possible for me — standing still. She headed nearly 
due south, yawing, of course, all the time. Each 
time she fell off, her sails partly filled, and these 
brought her, in a moment, right to the wind again. 
I have said this was the worst thing possible for me ; 
for helpless as she looked in this situation, with the 
canvas cracking like cannon, and the blocks trundling 
and banging on the deck, she still continued to run 
away from me, not only with the speed of the cur- 
rent, but by the whole amount of her leeway, which 
was naturally great. 

But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze 
fell, for some seconds, very low, and the current 
gradually turning her, the Hispaniola revolved 
slowly round her center, and at last presented me 
her stern, with the cabin window still gaping open, 
and the lamp over the table still burning on into the 
day. The mainsail hung drooped like a banner. 
She was stock-still, but for the current. 

For the last little while I had even lost; but now 
redoubling my efforts, I began once more to overhaul 
the chase. 

I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind 
came again in a clap ; she filled on the port tack, and 
w'as off again, stooping and skimming like a swallow. 

My first impulse was one of despair, but my second 
was toward joy. Round she came, till she was broad- 
side on to me — round still till she had covered a 
half, and then two thirds, and then three quarters 
of the distance that separated us. I could see the 
waves boiling white under her forefoot. Immensely 
tall she looked to me from my low station in the 
coracle. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


181 


And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I 
had scarce time to think — scarce time to act and 
save myself. I was on the summit of one swell when 
the schooner came stooping over the next. The bow- 
sprit was over my head. I sprang to my feet, and 
leaped, stamping the coracle under water. With 
one hand I caught the jib boom, while my foot was 
lodged between the stay and the brace ; and as I still 
clung there panting, a dull blow told me that the 
schooner had charged down upon and struck the 
coracle, and that I was left without retreat on the 
Hispaniola. 


CHAPTER XXV 

I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER 

I HAD scarce gained a position on the bowsprit, 
when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other 
tack, with a report like a gun. The schooner trem- 
bled to her keel under the reverse ; but next moment, 
the other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back 
again, and hung idle. 

This had nearly tossed me off into the sea ; and 
now I lost no time, crawled back along the bowsprit, 
and tumbled head foremost on the deck. 

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the 
mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed from me 
a certain portion of the after deck. Not a soul was 
to be seen’. The planks, which had not been swabbed 
since the mutiny, bore the print of many feet; and 
an empty bottle, broken by the neck, tumbled to and 
fro like a live thing in the scuppers. 


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Suddenly the Hispaniola came right into the wind. 
The jibs behind me cracked aloud; the rudder 
slammed to ; the whole ship gave a sickening heave 
and shuddered, and at the same moment the main 
boom swung inboard, the sheet groaning in the 
blocks, and showed me the lee after deck. 

There were the two watchmen, sure enough: red- 
cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with his 
arms stretched out like those of a crucifix, and his 
teeth showing through his open lips ; Israel Hands 
propped against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, 
his hands lying open before him on the deck, his face 
as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle. 

For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like 
a vicious horse, the sails filling, now on one tack, 
now on another, and the boom swinging to and fro 
till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now 
and again, too, there would come a cloud of light 
sprays over the bulwark, and a heavy blow of the 
ship’s bows against the swell ; so much heavier 
weather was made of it by this great rigged ship 
than by my homemade lopsided coracle, now gone 
to the bottom of the sea. 

At every jump of the schooner, red-cap slipped 
to and fro ; but — what was ghastly to behold — 
neither his attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosing 
grin was any way disturbed by this rough usage. At 
every jump, too. Hands appeared still more to sink 
into himself and settle down upon the deck, his feet 
sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body 
canting toward the stern, so that his face became, 
little by little, hid from me; and at last I could see 
nothing beyond his ear and the frayed ringlet of one 
whisker. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


183 


At the same time I observed, around both of them, 
splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and began 
to feel sure that they had killed each other in their 
drunken wrath. 

While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm 
moment, when the ship was still, Israel Hands turned 
partly round, and, with a low moan, writhed himself 
back to the position in which I had seen him first. 
The moan, which told of pain and deadly weakness, 
and the way in which his jaw hung open, went right 
to my heart. But when I remembered the talk I had 
overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me. 

I walked aft until I reached the mainmast. 

“Come aboard, Mr. Hands,” I said ironically. 

He rolled his eyes round heavily; but he was too 
far gone to express surprise. All he could do was 
to utter one word, “Brandy.” 

It occurred to me there was no time to lose ; and, 
dodging the boom as it once more lurched across the 
deck, I slipped aft, and down the companion stairs 
into the cabin. 

It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly 
fancy. All the lockfast places had been broken open 
in quest of the chart. The floor wa? thick wdth mud, 
where ruffians had sat down to drink or consult after 
wading in the marshes round their camp. The bulk- 
heads, all painted in clear white, and beaded round 
with gilt, bore a pattern of dirty hands. Dozens of 
empty bottles clinked together in corners to the roll- 
ing of the ship. One of the doctor’s medical books 
lay open on the table, half of the leaves gutted out, 
I suppose, for pipe lights. In the midst of all this 
the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown 
as umber. 


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I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, 
and of the bottles a most surprising number had 
been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly, since 
the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever have 
been sober. 

Foraging about, I found a bottle with some 
brandy left, for Hands ; and for myself I routed out 
some biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunch of 
raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on 
deck, put down my own stock behind the rudder- 
head, and well out of the coxswain’s reach, went 
forward to the water breaker, and had a good, deep 
drink of water, and then, and not till then, gave 
Hands the brandy. 

He must have drunk a gill before he took the 
bottle from his mouth. 

“Aye,” said he, “by thunder, but I wanted some . 
o’ that !” \ 

I had sat down already in my own corner and be- 
gun to eat. 

“Much hurt.?” I asked him. 

He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked. 

“If that doctor was aboard,” he said, “I’d be 
right enough in a couple of turns ; but I don’t have 
no manner of luck, you see, and that’s what’s the 
matter with me. As for that swab, he’s good and 
dead, he is,” he added, indicating the man with the 
red cap. “He warn’t no seaman, anyhow. And 
where mought you have come from.?” 

“Well,” said I, “I’ve come aboard to take posses- 
sion of this ship, Mr. Hands; and you’ll please re- 
gard me as your captain until further notice.” 

He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. 
Some of the color had come back into his cheeks. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


185 


though he still looked very sick, and still continued 
to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about. 

“By the bye,” I continued, “I can’t have these 
colors, Mr. Hands ; and, by your leave. I’ll strike 
’em. Better none than these.” 

And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color 
lines, handed down their cursed black flag, and 
chucked it overboard. 

“God save the king !” said I, waving my cap ; “and 
there’s an end to Captain Silver!” 

He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the 
while on his breast. 

“I reckon,” he said at last — “I reckon, Cap’n 
Hawkins, you’ll kind of want to get ashore, now. 
S’pose we talks.” 

“Why, yes,” says I, “with all my heart, Mr. 
Hands. Say on.” And I went back to my meal with 
a good appetite. 

“This man,” he began, nodding feebly at the 
corpse — “O’Brien were his name — a rank Irelander 
— this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning 
for to sail her back. Well, he's dead now, he is — as 
dead as bilge ; and who’s to sail this ship, I don’t see. 
Without I gives you a hint, you ain’t that man, as 
far’s I can tell. Now, look here, you gives me food 
and drink, and a old scarf or ankecher to tie my 
wound up, you do; and I’ll tell you how to sail her; 
and that’s square all round, I take it.” 

“I’ll tell you one thing,” says I: “I’m not going 
back to Captain Kidd’s anchorage. I mean to get 
into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there.” 

“To be sure you did,” he cried. “Why, I ain’t 
sich an infernal lubber, after all. I can see, can’t I.^ 
I’ve tried my fling, I have, and I’ve lost, and it’s 


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jou has the wind of me. North Inlet Why, I 
haven’t no ch’ice, not I ! I’d help you sail her up to 
Execution Dock, by thunder! so I would.” 

Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in 
this. We struck our bargain on the spot. In three 
minutes I had the Hispaniola sailing easily before 
the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with 
good hopes of turning the northern point ere noon, 
and beating down again as far as North Inlet before 
high water, when we might beach her safely, and 
w'ait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land. 

Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own 
chest, where I got a soft silk handkerchief of my 
mother’s. With this, and with my aid. Hands bound 
up the great bleeding stab he had received in the 
thigh, and after he had eaten a little and had a 
swallow or two more of the brandy he began to pick 
up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and 
clearer, and looked in every way another man. 

The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed 
before it like a bird, the coast of the island flashing 
by, and the view changing every minute. Soon we 
were past the high lands and bowling beside low, 
sandy country, sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, 
and soon we were beyond that again, and had turned 
the corner of the rocky hill that ends the island'on 
the north. 

I was greatly elated with my new command, and 
pleased with the bright, sunshiny weather and these 
different prospects of the coast. I had now plenty 
of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, 
which had smitten me hard for my desertion, was 
quieted by the great conquest I had made. I should, 
I think, have had nothing left me to desire but the 


TREASURE ISLAND 


187 


eyes of the coxswain as they followed me derisively 
about the deck, and the odd smile that appeared con- 
tinually on his face. It was a smile that had in it 
something both of pain and weakness — a haggard, 
old man’s smile; but there was, besides that, a grain 
of derision, a shadow of treachery, in his expression 
as he craftily watched, and watched, and watched me 
at my work. 


CHAPTER XXVI 

ISRAEL HANDS 

The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into 
the west. We could run so much the easier from the 
northeast corner of the island to the mouth of the 
North Inlet. Only, as we had no power to anchor, 
and dared not beach her till the tide had flowed a 
good deal farther, time hung on our hands. The 
coxswain told me how to lay the ship to ; after a 
good many trials I succeeded, and we both sat in 
silence, over another meal. 

“Cap’n,” said he, at length, with that same un- 
comfortable smile, “here’s my old shipmate, O’Brien ; 
s’pose you was to heave him overboard. I ain’t 
partic’lar as a rule, and I don’t take no blame for 
settling his hash; but I don’t reckon him oramental, 
now, do you.^” 

“I’m not strong enough, and I don’t like the job; 
and there he lies, for me,” said I. 

“This here’s an unlucky ship — this Hispaniola, 
Jim,” he went on, blinking. “There’s a power of 
men been killed in this Hispaniola — a sight o’ poor 


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seamen dead and gone since you and me took ship to 
Bristol. I never seen sich dirty luck, not I. There 
was this here O’Brien, now — he’s dead, ain’t he.? 
Well, now, I’m no scholar, and you’re a lad as can 
read and figure ; and to put it straight, do you take 
it as a dead man is dead for good, or do he come 
alive again 

“You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the 
spirit ; you must know that already,” I replied. 
“O’Brien there is in another world, and maybe watch- 
ing us.” 

“Ah !” says he. “Well, that’s unfort’nate — ap- 
pears as if killing parties was a waste of time. 
Howsomever, sperrits don’t reckon for much, by 
what I’ve seen. I’ll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. 
And now, you’ve spoke up free, and I’ll take it kind 
if you’d step down into that there cabin and get me 
a — well, a — shiver my timbers ! I can’t hit the 
name on’t; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim 
— this here brandy’s too strong for my head.” 

Now, the coxswain’s hesitation seemed to be un- 
natural ; and as for the notion of his preferring wine 
to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story 
was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the deck — 
so much was plain; but with what purpose I could 
in no way imagine. His eyes never met mine ; they 
kept wandering to and fro, up and down, now with a 
look to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the 
dead O’Brien. All the time he kept smiling, and 
putting his tongue out in the most guilty, embar- 
rassed manner, so that a child could have told that 
he was bent on some deception. I was prompt with 
my answer, however, for I saw where my advantage 


TREASURE ISLAND 


189 


lay ; and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could 
easily conceal my suspicions to the end. 

“Some wine.?” I said. “Far better. Will you have 
white or red.?” 

“Well, I reckon it’s about the blessed same to me, 
shipmate,” he replied; “so it’s strong, and plenty of 
it, what’s the odds.?” 

“All right,” 1 answered. “I’ll bring you port, 
Mr. Hands. But I’ll have to dig for it.” 

With that I scuttled down the companion with all 
the noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran quietly 
along the sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle 
ladder, and popped my head out of the fore com- 
panion. I knew he would not expect to see me there ; 
yet I took every precaution possible ; and certainly 
the worst of my suspicions proved too true. 

He had risen from his position to his hands and 
knees ; and though his leg obviously hurt him pretty 
sharply when he moved — for I could hear him stifle 
a groan — yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he 
trailed himself across the deck. In half a minute 
he had reached the port scuppers, and picked, out of 
a coil of rope, a long knife, or rather a short dirk, 
discolored to the hilt with blood. He looked upon it 
for a moment, thrusting forth his under jaw, tried 
the point upon his hand, and then, hastily concealing 
it in the bosom of his jacket, trundled back again 
into his old place against the bulwark. 

This was all that I required to know. Israel could 
move about; he was now armed; and if he had been 
at so much trouble to get rid of me, it was plain that 
I was meant to be the victim. What he would do 
afterward — whether he would try to crawl right 
across the island from North Inlet to the camp 


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among the swamps, or whether he would fire Long 
Tom, trusting that his own comrades might come 
first to help him, was, of course, more than I could 
saj. 

Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point, 
since in that our interests jumped together, and that 
was in the disposition of the schooner. We both 
desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a shelt- 
ered place, and so that, when the time came, she 
could be got off again with as little labor and danger 
as might be ; and until that was done I considered 
that my life would certainly be spared. 

While I was thus turning the business over in my 
mind, I had not been idle with my body. I had stolen 
back to the cabin, slipped once more into my shoes, 
and laid my hand at random on a bottle of wine, and 
now, with this for an excuse, I made my reappear- 
ance on the deck. 

Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together 
in a bundle, and with his eyelids lowered, as though 
he were too weak to bear the light. He looked up, 
however, at my coming, knocked the neck ofF the 
bottle, like a man who had done the same thing often, 
and took a good swig, with his favorite toast of 
“Here’s luck!” Then he lay quiet for a little, and 
then, pulling out a stick of tobacco, begged me to 
cut him a quid. 

“Cut me a junk o’ that,” says he, “for I haven’t 
no knife, and hardly strength enough, so be as I 
had. Ah, Jim, Jim, I reckon I’ve missed stays ! Cut 
me a quid, as ’ll likely be the last, lad; for I’m for 
my long home, and no mistake.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


191 


“Well,” said I, “I’ll cut you some tobacco; but 
if I was you and thought myself so badly, I would 
go to my prayers, like a Christian man.” 

“Why.?” said he. “Now, you tell me* why.” 

“Why.?” I cried. “You were asking me just now 
about the dead. You’ve broken your trust; you’ve 
lived in sin and lies and blood; there’s a man you 
killed lying at your feet this moment ; and you ask 
me why! For God’s mercy, Mr. Hands, that’s why.” 

I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody 
dirk he had hidden in his pocket, and designed, in 
his ill thoughts, to end me with. He, for his part, 
took a great draught of the wine, and spoke with the 
most unusual solemnity. 

“For thirty years,” he said, “I’ve sailed the seas, 
and seen good and bad, better and worse, fair 
weather and foul, provisions running out, knives go- 
ing, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never 
seen good come o’ goodness yet. Him as strikes first 
is my fancy; dead men don’t bite; them’s my views 
— amen, so be it. And now, you look here,” he 
added, suddenly changing his tone, “we’ve had about 
enough of this foolery. The tide’s made good enough 
by now. You just take my orders, Cap’n Hawkins, 
and we’ll sail slap in and be done with it.” 

All told, we had scarce two miles to run; but the 
navigation was delicate, the entrance to this northern 
anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay 
east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely 
handled to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt 
subaltern, and I am very sure that Hands was an 
excellent pilot; for we went about and about, and 
dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and a 
neatness that were a pleasure to behold. 


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Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land 
closed around us. The shores of North Inlet were 
as thickly wooded as those of the southern anchor- 
age ; but the space was longer and narrower, and 
more like, what in truth it was, the estuary of a 
river. Right before us, at the southern end we saw 
the wreck of a ship in the last stages of dilapidation. 
It had been a great vessel of three masts, but had 
lain so long exposed to the injuries of the weather, 
that it was hung about with great webs of dripping 
seaweed, and on the deck of it shore bushes had taken 
root, and now flourished thick with flowers. It was 
a sad sight, but it showed us that the anchorage was 
calm. 

“Now,” said Hands, “look there; there’s a pet bit 
for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat’s- 
paw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blowing 
like a garding on that old ship.” 

“And once beached,” I inquired, “how shall we get 
her off again 

“Why, so,” he repiled: “you take a line ashore 
there on the other side at low water; take a turn 
about one o’ them big pines ; bring it back, take a 
turn round the capstan, and lie to for the tide. Come 
high water, all hands take a pull upon the line, and 
off she comes so sweet as natur’. And now, boy, 
you stand by. We’re near the bit now, and she’s 
too much way on her. Starboard a little — so — 
steady — starboard — larboard a little — steady — 
steady !” 

So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly 
obeyed; till, all of a sudden, he cried, “Now, my 
hearty, luff!” And I put the helm hard up, and the 


TREASURE ISLAND 


193 


Hispaniola swung round rapidly and ran stem on for 
the low wooded shore. 

The excitement of these last maneuvers had some- 
what interferred with the watch I had kept hitherto, 
sharply enough, upon the coxswain. Even then I 
was still so much interested, waiting for the ship to 
touch, that I had quite forgot the peril that hung 
over my head, and stood craning over the starboard 
bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide 
before the bows. I might have fallen without a 
struggle for my life, had not a sudden disquietude 
seized upon me, and made me turn my head. Per- 
haps I had heard a creak, or seen his shadow moving 
with the tail of my eye ; perhaps it was an instinct 
like a cat’s ; but, sure enough, when I looked round, 
there was Hands, already halfway toward me, with 
the dirk in his right hand. 

We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes 
met ; but while mine was the shrill cry of terror, his 
was a roar of fury like a charging bull’s. At the 
same instant he threw himself forward, and I leapt 
sideways toward the bows. As I did so, I let go 
of the tiller, which sprang sharp to leeward; and I 
think this saved my life, for it struck Hands across 
the chest, and stopped him, for the moment, dead. 

Before he could recover, I was safe out of the 
corner where he had me trapped, with all the deck 
to dodge about. Just forward of the mainmast I 
stopped, drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool 
aim, though he had already turned and was once 
more coming directly after me, and drew the trigger. 
The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash nor 
sound; the priming was useless with sea water. I 
cursed myself for my neglect. Why had not I, long 


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before, reprimed and reloaded my only weapons? 
Then I should not have been, as now, a mere fleeing 
sheep before this butcher. 

Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he 
could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his face, 
and his face itself as red as a red ensign with his 
haste and fury. I had no time to try my other 
pistol, nor, indeed, much inclination, for I was sure 
it would be useless. One thing I saw plainly: I must 
not simply retreat before him, or he would speedily 
hold me boxed into the bows, as a moment since he 
had so nearly boxed me in the stern. Once so caught, 
and nine or ten inches of the bloodstained dirk would 
be my last experience on this side of eternity. I 
placed my palms against the mainmast, which was of 
a goodish bigness, and waited, every nerve upon the 
stretch. 

Seeing that I meant to dodge, he also paused ; and 
a moment or two passed in feints on his part, and 
corresponding movements upon mine. It was such 
a game as I had often played at home about the 
rocks of Black Hill Cove ; but never before, you may 
be sure, with such a wildly beating heart as now. 
Still, as I say, it was a boy’s game, and I thought I 
could hold my own at it, against an elderly seaman 
with a wounded thigh. Indeed, my courage had be- 
gun to rise so high, that I allowed myself a few 
darting thoughts on what would be the end of the 
affair; and while I saw certainly that I could spin it 
out for long, I saw no hope of any ultimate escape. 

Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the His- 
paniola struck, staggered, ground for an instant in 
the sand, and then, swift as a blow, canted over to 
the port side, till the deck stood at an angle of forty- 


TREASURE ISLAND 


195 


five degrees, and about a puncheon of water splashed 
into the scupper holes, and lay, in a pool, between 
the deck and bulwark. 

We were both of us capsized in a second, and both 
of us rolled, almost together, into the scuppers ; the 
dead redcap, with his arms still spread out, tumbling 
stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed, that my 
head came against the coxswain’s foot with a crack 
that made my teeth rattle. Blow and all, I was the 
first afoot again ; for Hands had got involved with 
the dead body. The sudden canting of the ship had 
made the deck no place for running on ; I had to find 
some new way of escape, and that upon the instant, 
for my foe was almost touching me. Quick as 
thought I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled 
up hand over hand, and did not draw a breath till I 
was seated on the crosstrees. 

I had been saved by being prompt; the dirk had 
struck not half a foot below me, as I pursued my 
upward flight ; and there stood Israel Hands with 
his mouth open and his face upturned to mine, a 
perfect statue of surprise and disappointment. 

Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no time 
in changing the priming of my pistol, and then, hav- 
ing one ready for service, and to make assurance 
doubly sure, I proceeded to draw the load of the 
other, and recharge it afresh from the beginning. 

My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; 
he began to see the dice going against him ; and after 
an obvious hesitation, he also hauled himself heavily 
into the shrouds, and, with the dirk in his teeth, be- 
gan slowly and painfully to mount. It cost him no 
end of time and groans to haul his wounded leg be- 
hind him; and I had quietly finished my arrange- 


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merits before he was much more than a third of the 
way up. Then, with a pistol in either hand, I ad- 
dressed him. 

“One more step, Mr. Hands,” said I, “and I’ll 
blow your brains out! Dead men don’t bite, you 
know,” I added, with a chuckle. 

He stopped instantly. I could see by the working 
of his face that he was trying to think, and the pro- 
cess was so slow and laborious that, in my new-found 
security, I laughed aloud. At last, with a swallow 
or two, he spoke, his face still wearing the same ex- 
pression of extreme perplexity. In order to speak 
he had to take the dagger from his mouth, but, in all 
else, he remained unmoved. 

“Jim,” says he, “I reckon we’re fouled, you and 
me, and we’ll have to sign articles. I’d have had you 
but for that there lurch: but I don’t have no luck, 
not I ; and I reckon I’ll have to strike, which comes 
hard, you see, for a master mariner to a ship’s 
younker like you, Jim.” 

I was drinking in his words, and smiling away, as 
conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath, 
back went his right hand over his shoulder. Some- 
thing sang like an arrow through the air; I felt a 
blow and then a sharp pang, and there I was pinned 
by the shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain and 
surprise of the moment — I scarce can say it was by 
my own volition, and I am sure it was without a 
conscious aim — both my pistols went off, and both 
escaped out of my hands. They did not fall alone; 
with a choked cry, the coxswain loosed his grasp 
upon the shrouds, and plunged head first into the 
water. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


19T 


CHAPTER XXVH 
“pieces of eight” 

Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung 
far out over the water, and from my perch on the 
crosstrees I had nothing below me but the surface of 
the bay. Hands, who was not so far up, was, in 
consequence, nearer to the ship, and fell between me 
and the bulwarks. He rose once to the surface in a 
lather of foam and blood, and then sank again for 
good. As the water settled, I could see him lying 
huddled together on the clean, bright sand in the 
shadow of the vessel’s sides. A fish or two whipped 
past his body. Sometimes, by the quivering of the 
water, he appeared to move a little, as if he were 
trying to rise. But he was dead enough, for all that, 
being both shot and drowned, and was food for fish 
in the very place where he had designed my slaughter. 

I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel 
sick, faint, and terrified. The hot blood was running 
over my back and chest. The dirk, where it had 
pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like 
a hot iron ; yet it was not so much these real suffer- 
ings that distressed me, for these, it seemed to me, 
I could bear without a murmur; it was the horror I 
had upon my mind of falling from the crosstrees into 
that still green water, beside the body of the cox- 
swain. 

I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and 
I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually 
my mind came back again, my pulses quieted down 
to a more natural time, and I was once more in pos- 
session of myself. 


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It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk; 
but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me; 
and I desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough, 
that very shudder did the business. The knife, in 
fact, had come the nearest in the world to missing 
me altogether ; it held me by a mere pinch of skin, 
and this the shudder tore away. The blood ran down 
the faster, to be sure ; but I was my own master 
again, and only tacked to the mast by my coat and 
shirt. 

These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, 
and then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. 
For nothing in the world would I have again 
ventured, shaken as I was, upon the overhanging 
port shrouds, from which Israel had so lately fallen. 

I went below, and did what I could for my wound ; 
it pained me a good deal, and still bled freely; but 
it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly 
gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around 
me, and as the ship was now, in a sense, my own, I 
began to think of clearing it from its last passenger 
— the dead man, O’Brien. 

He had pitched, as I have said, against the bul- 
warks, where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort 
of puppet; life-size, indeed, but how different from 
life’s color or life’s comeliness ! In that position I 
could easily have my way with him ; and as the habit 
of tragical adventures had w'orn off almost all my 
terror for the dead, I took him by the waist as if he 
had been a sack of bran, and, with one good heave, 
tumbled him overboard. He went in with a sounding 
plunge; the red cap came off, and remained floating 
on the surface; and as soon as the splash subsided, 
I could see him and Israel lying side by side, both 


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199 


wavering with the tremulous movement of the water. 
O’Brien, though still quite a young man, was very 
bald. There he lay, with that bald head across the 
knees of the man who had killed him, and the quick 
fishes steering to and fro over both. 

I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had just 
turned. The sun was within so few degrees of setting 
that already the shadow of the pines upon the west- 
ern shore began to reach right across the anchorage, 
and fall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze 
had sprung up, and though it was well warded off by 
the hill with the two peaks upon the east, the cordage 
had begun to sing a little softly to itself and the idle 
sails to rattle to and fro. 

I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs I 
speedily doused and brought tumbling to the deck; 
but the mainsail was a harder matter. Of course, 
when the schooner canted over, the boom had swung 
outboard, and the cap of it and a foot or two of 
sail hung even under water. I thought this made it 
still more dangerous ; yet the strain was so heavy 
that I half feared to meddle. At last, I got my knife 
and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, 
a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the 
water; and since, pull as I liked, I could not budge 
the downhaul, that was the extent of what I could 
accomplish. For the rest, the Hispaniola must trust 
to luck, like myself. 

By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into 
shadow — the last rays, I remember, falling through 
a glade of the wood, and shining bright as jewels, on 
the flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill ; 
the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner 
settling more and more on her beam ends. 


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I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed 
shallow enough, and holding the cut hawser in both 
hands for a last security, I let myself drop softly 
overboard. The water scarcely reached my waist; 
the sand was firm and covered with ripple marks, and 
I waded ashore in great spirits, leaving the His- 
paniola on her side, with her mainsail trailing wide 
upon the surface of the bay. About the same time 
the sun went fairly down, and the breeze whistled low 
in the dusk among the tossing pines. 

At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I 
returned thence empty handed. There lay the 
schooner, clear at last from buccaneers and ready 
for our own men to board and get to sea again. I 
had nothing nearer my fancy than to get home to 
the stockade and boast of my achievements. Possibly 
I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but the 
recapture of the Hispaniola was a clinching answer, 
and I hoped that even Captain Smollett would con- 
fess I had not lost my time. 

So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set 
my face homeward for the blockhouse and my com- 
panions. I remembered that the most easterly of the 
rivers which drain into Captain Kidd’s anchorage 
ran from the two-peaked hill upon my left; and I 
bent my course in that direction that I might pass 
the stream while it was small. The wood was pretty 
open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I had soon 
turned the corner of that hill, and not long after 
waded to the mid-calf across the watercourse. 

This brought me near to where I had encountered 
Ben Gunn, the maroon ; and I walked more circum- 
spectly, keeping an eye on every side. The dusk had 
come nigh hand completely, and, as I opened out 


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201 


the cleft between the two peaks, I became aware of a 
wavering glow against the sky, where, as I judged, 
the man of the island was cooking his supper before 
a roaring fire. And yet I wondered, in my heart, 
that he should show himself so careless. For if I 
could see this radiance, might it not reach the eyes 
of Silver himself where he camped upon the shore 
among the marshes.? 

Gradually the night fell blacker ; it was all I could 
do to guide myself even roughly toward my desti- 
nation; the double hill behind me and the Spyglass 
on my right hand loomed faint and fainter ; the stars 
were few and pale; and in the low ground where I 
wandered I kept tripping among bushes and rolling 
into sandy pits. 

Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I 
looked up ; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted 
on the summit of the Spyglass, and soon after I saw 
something broad and silvery moving low down behind 
the trees, and knew the moon had risen. 

With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what 
remained to me of my journey; and, sometimes walk- 
ing, sometimes running, impatiently drew near to the 
stockade. Yet, as I began to thread the grove that 
lies before it, I was not so thoughtless but that I 
slacked my pace and went a trifle warily. It would 
have been a poor end of my adventures to get shot 
down by my own party in mistake. 

The moon was climbing higher and higher; its 
light began to fall here and there in masses through 
the more open districts of the wood; and right in 
front of me a glow of a different color appeared 
among the trees. It was red and hot, and now and 


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again it was a little darkened — as it were the embers 
of a bonfire smoldering. 

For the life of me, I could not think what it might 
be. 

At last I came right down upon the borders of the 
clearing. The western end was already steeped in 
moonshine ; the rest, and the blockhouse itself, still 
lay in a black shadow, checkered with long, silvery 
streaks of light. On the other side of the house an 
immense fire had burned itself into clear embers and 
shed a steady, red reverberation, contrasted strongly 
with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not 
a soul stirring, nor a sound beside the noises of the 
breeze. 

I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and 
perhaps a little terror also. It had not been our way 
to build great fires ; we were, indeed, by the captain’s 
orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood ; and I began 
to fear that something had gone wrong while I was 
absent. 

I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in 
shadow, and at a convenient place, where the dark- 
ness was thickest, crossed the palisade. 

To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and 
knees, and crawled, without a sound, toward the 
corner of the house. As I drew nearer, my heart was 
suddenly and greatly lightened. It is not a pleasant 
noise in itself, and I have often complained of it at 
other times ; but just then it was like music to hear 
my friends snoring together so loud and peaceful in 
their sleep. The sea cry of the watch, that beautiful 
“All’s well,” never fell more reassuringly on my ear. 

In the meantime, there was no doubt of one thing : 
they kept infamous bad watch. If it had been Silver 


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203 


and his lads that were now creeping in on them, not 
a soul would have seen daybreak. That was what it 
was, thought I, to have the captain wounded; and 
again I blamed myself sharply for leaving them in 
that danger with so few to mount guard. 

By this time I had got to the door and stood up. 
All was dark within, so that I could distinguish 
nothing by the eye. As for sounds, there was the 
steady drone of the snorers, and a small occasional 
noise, a flickering or pecking that I could in no way 
account for. 

With my arms before me I walked steadily in. I 
should lie down in my own place (I thought, with a 
silent chuckle) and enjoy their faces when they found 
me in the morning. 

My foot struck something yielding — it was a 
sleeper’s leg ; and he turned and groaned, but without 
awaking. 

And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke forth 
out of the darkness : 

“Pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight! 
pieces of eight! pieces of eight!” and so forth, with- 
out pause or change, like the clacking of a tiny mill. 

Silver’s green parrot. Captain Flint! It was she 
whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark ; it was 
she, keeping better watch than any human being, who 
thus announced my arrival with her wearisome re- 
frain. 

I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp, 
clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke and 
sprang up; and with a mighty oath, the voice of 
Silver cried: — 

“Who goes.?” 


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I turned to run, struck violently against one per- 
son, recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a second, 
who, for his part, closed upon and held me tight. 

“Bring a torch, Dick,” said Silver, when my cap- 
ture was thus assured. 

And one of the men left the log house and presently 
returned with a lighted brand. 


PART VI 


CAPTAIN SILVER 


CHAPTER XXVIII 

IN THE enemy’s CAMP 

The red glare of the torch, lighting up the in- 
terior of the blockhouse, showed me the worst of my 
apprehensions realized. The pirates were in posses- 
sion of the house and stores : there was the cask of 
cognac, there were the pork and bread, as before; 
and, what tenfold increased my horror, not a sign 
of any prisoner. I could only judge that all had 
perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had 
not been there to perish with them. 

There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not an- 
other man was left alive. Five of them were on their 
feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of the 
first sleep of drunkeness. The sixth had only risen 
upon his elbow ; he was deadly pale, and the blood- 
stained bandage round his head told that he had 
recently been wounded, and still more recently 
dressed. I remembered the man who had been shot 
and had run back among the woods in the great 
attack, and doubted not that this was he. 

The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long 
John’s shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked 
somewhat paler and more stern than I was used to. 

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He still wore the fine broadcloth suit in which he had 
fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly the worse for 
wear, daubed with clay and torn with the sharp briers 
of the wood. 

“So,” said he, “here’s Jim Hawkins, shiver my 
timbers ! dropped in, like, eh.? Well, come, I take that 
friendly.” 

And thereupon he sat down across the brandy 
cask, and began to fill a pipe. 

“Give me a loan of the link, Dick,” said he; and 
then, when he had a good light, “That’ll do, lad,” he 
added ; “stick the glim in the wood heap ; and you, 
gentlemen, bring yourselves to ! — you needn’t stand 
up for Mr. Hawkins ; he’ll excuse you, you may lay 
to that. And so, Jim” — stopping the tobacco — 
“here you were, and quite a pleasant surprise for 
poor old John. I see you were smart when first I 
set my eyes on you ; but this here gets away from 
me clean, it do.” 

To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no 
answer. They had set me with my back against the 
wall ; and I stood there, looking Silver in the face, 
pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, 
but with black despair in my heart. 

Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great 
composure, and then ran on again. 

“Now, you see, Jim, so be as you are here,” says 
he, “I’ll give you a piece of my mind. I’ve always 
liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter 
of my own self when I was young and handsome. I 
always wanted you to jine and take your share, and 
die a gentleman, and now, my cock, you’ve got to. 
Cap’n Smollett’s a fine seaman, as I’ll own up to 
any day, but stiff on discipline. ‘Booty is dooty,’ 


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207 


says he, and right he is. Just you keep clear of the 
cap’n. The doctor himself is gone dead again you — 
‘ungrateful scamp’ was what he said; and the short 
and the long of the whole story is about here: you 
can’t go back to your own lot, for they won’t have 
you ; and, without you start a third ship’s company 
all by yourself, which might be lonely, you’ll have to 
jine with Cap’n Silver.” 

So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, 
and though I partly believed the truth of Silver’s 
statement, that the cabin party were incensed at me 
for my desertion, I was more relieved than distressed 
by what I heard. 

“I don’t say nothing as to your being in our 
hands,” continued Silver, “though there you are, and 
you may lay to it. I’m for argyment; I never seen 
good come out o’ threatening. If you like the 
service, well, you’ll jine; and if you don’t, Jim, why, 
you’re free to answer no — free and welcome, ship- 
mate ; and if fairer can be said by mortal seaman, 
shiver my sides !” 

“Am I to answer, then.?” I asked, with a very 
tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I 
was made to feel the threat of death that overhung 
me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat pain- 
fully in my breast. 

“Lad,” said Silver, “no one’s a-pressing of you. 
Take your bearings. None of us won’t hurry you, 
mate; time goes so pleasant in your company, you 
see.” 

“Well,” says I, growing a bit bolder, “if I’m to 
choose, I declare I have a right to know what’s what, 
and why you’re here, and where my friends are.” 


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“Wot’s wot?” repeated one of the buccaneers, in 
a deep growl, “Ah, he’d be a lucky one as knowed 
that !” 

“You’ll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till 
you’re spoke to, my friend,” cried Silver truculently 
to this speaker. And then, in his first gracious tones, 
he replied to me: “Yesterday morning, Mr. Haw- 
kins,” said he, “in the dogwatch, down came Dr. 
Livesey with a flag of truce. Says he, ‘Cap’n Silver, 
you’re sold out. Ship’s gone.’ Well, maybe we’d 
been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. I 
won’t say no. Leastways none of us had looked out. 
We looked out, and, by thunder! the old ship was 
gone. I never seen a pack o’ fools look fishier; and 
you may lay to that, if I tells you that looked the 
fishiest. ‘Well,’ says the doctor, ‘let’s bargain.’ We 
bargained, him and I, and here we are : stores, 
brandy, blockhouse, the firewood you was thoughtful 
enough to cut, and, in a manner of speaking, the 
whole blessed boat, from crosstrees to keelson. As 
for them, they’ve tramped ; I don’t know where’s they 
are.” 

He drew again quietly at his pipe. 

“And lest you should take it into that head of 
yours,” he went on, “that you was included in the 
treaty, here’s the last word that was said: ‘How 
many are you,’ says I, ‘to leave?’ ‘Four,’ says he 
— ‘four, and one of us wounded. As for that boy, 
I don’t know where he is, confound him,’ says he, 
‘nor I don’t much care. We’re about sick of him.’ 
These was his words.” 

“Is that all?” I asked. 

“Well, it’s all that you’re to hear, my son,” re- 
turned Silver. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


209 


“And now I am to choose?” 

“And now you are to choose, and you may lay to 
that,” said Silver. 

“Well,” said I, “I am not such a fool but I know 
pretty well what I have to look for. Let the worst 
come to the worst, it’s little I care. I’ve seen too 
many die since I fell in with you. But there’s a 
thing or two I have to tell you,” I said, and by this 
time I was quite excited; “and the first is this: here 
you are, in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, men 
lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you 
want to know who did it — it was I ! I was in the 
apple barrel the night we sighted land, and I heard 
you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who 
is now at the bottom of the sea, and told every word 
you said before the hour was out. And as for the 
schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I 
that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was 
I who brought her where you’ll never see her more, 
not one of you. The laugh’s on my side ; I’ve had 
the top of this business from the first ; I no more 
fear you than I fear a fly. Kill me, if you please, 
or spare me. But one thing I’ll say, and no more; 
if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and when you 
fellows are in court for piracy. I’ll save you all I 
can. It is for you to choose. Kill another and do 
yourselves no good, or spare me and keep a witness 
to save you from the gallows.” 

I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, 
and, to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but 
all sat staring at me like as many sheep. And while 
they were still staring, I broke out again : — 

“And now, Mr. Silver,” I said, “I believe you’re 
the best man here, and if things go the worst. I’ll 


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take it kind of you to let the doctor know the way 
I took it.” 

“I’ll bear it in mind,” said Silver, with an accent so 
curious that I could not, for the life of me, decide 
whether he were laughing at my request, or had been 
favorably affected by my courage. 

“I’ll put one to that,” cried the old mahogany- 
faced seaman — Morgan by name — whom I had 
seen in Long John’s public house upon the quays of 
Bristol. “It was him that knowed Black Dog.” 

“Well, and see here,” added the sea cook. “I’ll 
put another again to that, by thunder! for it was 
this same boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones- 
First and last, we’ve split upon Jim Hawkins 1” 

“Then here goes !” said iMorgan, with an oath. 

And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had 
been twenty. 

“Avast there!” cried Silver. “Who are you, Tom 
Morgan.? Maybe you thought you was cap’n here, 
perhaps. By the powers, but I’ll teach you better! 
Cross me, and you’ll go where many a good man’s 
gone before you, first and last, these thirty years 
back — some to the yard-arm, shiver my sides ! and 
some by the board, and all to feed the fishes. There’s 
never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a 
good day a’terward, Tom Morgan, you may lay to 
that.” 

Morgan paused ; but a hoarse murmur rose from 
the others. 

“Tom’s right,” said one. 

“I stood hazing long enough from one,” added 
another. “I’ll be hanged if I’ll be hazed by you, 
John Silver.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


211 


“Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out 
with me?” roared Silver, bending far forward from 
his position on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in 
his right hand. “Put a name on what you’re at ; you 
ain’t dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. 
Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum 
puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at the latter 
end of it.? You know the way; you’re all gentlemen 
o’ fortune, by your account. Well, I’m ready. Take 
a cutlass, him that dares, and I’ll see the color of his 
inside, crutch and all, before that pipe’s empty.” 

Not a man stirred; not a man answered. 

“That’s your sort, is it.?” he added, returning his 
pipe to his mouth. “Well, you’re a gay lot to look 
at, anyway. Not much worth to fight, you ain’t. 
P’r’aps you can understand King George’s English. 
I’m cap’n here by ’lection. I’m cap’n here because 
I’m the best man by a long sea mile. You won’t fight, 
as gentlemen o’ fortune should; then, by thunder, 
you’ll obey, and you may lay to it ! I like that boy, 
now ; I never seen a better boy than that. He’s more 
a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house, 
and what I say is this: let me see him that’ll lay a 
hand on him — that’s what I say, and you may lay 
to it.” 

There was a long pause after this. I stood 
straight up against the wall, my heart still going 
like a sledge hammer, but with a ray of hope now 
shining in my bosom. Silver leaned back against the 
wall, his arms crossed, his pipe in the corner of his 
mouth, as calm as though he had been in church ; yet 
his eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept the 
tail of it on his unruly followers. They, on their 
part, drew gradually together toward the far end 


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of the blockhouse, and the low hiss of their whisper- 
ing sounded in my ear continuously like a stream. 
One after another they would look up, and the red 
light of the torch would fall for a second on their 
nervous faces ; but it was not toward me, it was 
toward Silver that they turned their eyes. 

“You seem to have a lot to say,” remarked Silver, 
spitting far into the air. “Pipe up and let me hear 
it, or lay to.” 

“Ax your pardon, sir,” returned one of the men, 
“you’re pretty free with some of the rules ; maybe 
you’ll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew’s 
dissatisfied; this crew don’t vally bullying a marlin- 
spike ; this crew has its rights like other crews. I’ll 
make so free as that ; and by your own rules, I take 
it we can talk together. I ax your pardon, sir, 
acknowledging you to be capting at this present ; but 
I claim my right, and steps outside for a council.” 

And with an elaborate sea salute, this fellow, a 
long, ill-looking, yellow-eyed man of five and thirty, 
stepped coolly toward the door and disappeared out 
of the house. One after another, the rest followed 
his example ; each making a salute as he passed ; each 
adding some apology. “According to rules,” said 
one. “Fo’c’s’le council,” said Morgan. And so with 
one remark or another, all marched out, and left 
Silver and me alone with the torch. 

The sea cook instantl y r emoved his pipe. 

“Now, look you here, Jim Hawkins,” he said, in a 
steady whisper, that was no more than audible, 
“you’re within half a plank of death, and, what’s a 
long sight worse, of torture. They’re going to 
throw me off. But, you mark, I stand by you through 
thick and thin. I didn’t mean to; no, not till you 


TREASURE ISLAND 


213 


spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much 
blunt, and be hanged into the bargain. But I see 
you was the right sort. I says to myself : You stand 
by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins’ll stand by you. 
You’re his last card, and, by the living thunder, 
John, he’s yours ! Back to back, says I. You save 
your witness, and he’ll save your neck!” 

I began dimly to understand. 

“You mean all’s lost.^” I asked. 

“Ay, by gum, I do I” he answered. “Ship gone, 
neck gone — that’s the size of it. Once I looked into 
that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen no schooner — well, 
I’m tough, but I gave out. As for that lot and their 
council, mark me, they’re outright fools and cowards. 
I’ll save your life — if so be as I can — from them. 
But, see here, Jim — tit for tat — you save Long 
John from swinging.” 

I w'as bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he 
was asking — he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader 
throughout. 

“What I can do, that I’ll do,” I said. 

“It’s a bargain!” cried Long John. “You speak 
up plucky, and, by thunder ! I’ve a chance.” 

He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped 
among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his 
pipe. 

“Understand me, Jim,” he said, returning. “I’ve 
a head on my shoulders, I have. I’m on squire’s side 
now. I know you’ve got that ship safe somewheres. 
How you done it, I don’t know, but safe it is. I 
guess Hands and O’Brien turned soft. I never much 
believed in neither of them. Now you mark me. I 
ask no questions, nor I won’t let others. I know when 
a game’s up, I do ; and I know a lad that’s staunch. 


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Ah, you that’s young — you and me might have done 
a power of good together.” 

He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin 
cannikin. 

“Will you taste, messmate.^” he asked; and when 
I had refused : “Well, I’ll take a drain myself, Jim,” 
said he. “I need a caulker, for there’s trouble on 
hand. And, talking o’ trouble, why did that doctor 
give me the chart, Jim.^” 

My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he 
saw the needlessness of further questions. 

“Ah, well, he did, though,” said he. “And there’s 
something under that, no doubt — something, surely, 
under that, Jim — bad or good.” 

And he took another swallow of the brandy, shak- 
ing his great fair head like a man who looks forward 
to the worst. 


CHAPTER XXIX 

THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN 

The council of the buccaneers had lasted some 
time when one of them reentered the house, and with 
a repetition of the same salute, which had in my eyes 
an ironical air, begged for a moment’s loan of the 
torch. Silver briefly agreed; and this emissary re- 
tired again, leaving us together in the dark. 

“There’s a breeze coming, Jim,” said Silver, who 
had, by this time, adopted quite a friendly and 
familiar tone. 

I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out. 
The embers of the great Are had so far burned them- 


TREASURE ISLAND 


215 


selves out, and now glowed so low and duskily, that 
I understood why these conspirators desired a torch. 
About halfway down the slope to the stockade, they 
were collected in a group ; one held the light ; an- 
other was on his knees in their midst, and I saw the 
blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying 
colors, in the moon and torch light. The rest were 
all somewhat stooping, as though watching the ma- 
neuvers of this last. I could just make out that 
he had a book as well as a knife in his hand ; and was 
still wondering how anything so incongruous had 
come in their possession, when the kneeling figure 
rose once more to his feet, and the whole party be- 
gan to move together toward the house. 

“Here they come,” said I; and I returned to my 
former position, for it seemed beneath my dignity 
that they should find me watching them. 

“Well, let ’em come, lad — let ’em come,” said 
Silver, cheerily. “I’ve still a shot in my locker.” 

The door opened, and the five men, standing 
huddled together just inside, pushed one of their 
number forward. In any other circumstances it 
would have been comical to see his slow advance, 
hesitating as he set down each foot, but holding his 
closed right hand in front of him. 

“Step up, lad,” cried Silver. “I won’t eat you. 
Hand it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do ; I 
won’t hurt a depytation.” 

Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth 
more briskly, and having passed something to Silver, 
from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly back 
again to his companions. 

The sea cook looked at what had been given him. 


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“The black spot! I thought so,” he observed. 
“Where might you have got the paper? Why, hillo! 
look here, now: this ain’t lucky I You’ve gone and cut 
this out of a Bible. What fool’s cut a Bible?” 

“Ah, there!” said Morgan — “there! Wot did I 
say? No good’ll come o’ that, I said.” 

“Well, you’ve about fixed it now, among you,” 
continued Silver. “You’ll all swing now, I reckon. 
What soft-headed lubber had a Bible?” 

“It Avas Dick,” said one. 

“Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers,” 
said Silver. “He’s seen his slice of luck, has Dick, 
and you may lay to that.” 

But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck 
in. 

“Belay that talk, John Silver,” he said. “This 
crew has tipped you the black- spot in full council, 
as in dooty bound ; just you turn it over, as in dooty 
bound, and see what’s wrote there. Then you can 
talk.” 

“Thanky, George,” replied the sea cook. “You 
always was brisk for business, and has the rules by 
heart, George, as I’m pleased to see. Well, what is 
it, anyway? Ah! ‘Deposed’ — that’s it, is it? Very 
pretty wrote, to be sure; like print, I swear. Your 
hand o’ write, George? Why, you was gettin’ quite 
a leadin’ man in this here crew. You’ll be cap’n next, 
I shouldn’t wonder. Just oblige me with that torch 
again, will you? this pipe don’t draw.” 

“Come, now,” said George, “you don’t fool this 
crew no more. You’re a funny man, by your ac- 
count ; but you’re over now, and you’ll maybe step 
down off that barrel, and help vote.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


217 


“1 thought you said you knowed the rules,” re- 
turned Silver, contemptuously. “Leastways, if you 
don’t, I do ; and I wait here — and I’m still your 
cap’n, mind — till you outs with your grievances, and 
I reply ; in the meantime, your black spot ain’t worth 
a biscuit. After that, we’ll see.” 

“Oh,” replied George, “you don’t be under no kind 
of apprehension ; weWe all square, we are. First, 
you’ve made a hash of this cruise — you’ll be a bold 
man to say no to that. Second, you let the enemy 
out o’ this here trap for nothing. Why did they 
want out.^ I dunno ; but it’s pretty plain they wanted 
it. Third, you wouldn’t let us go at them upon the 
march. Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you 
want to play booty, that’s what’s wrong with you. 
And then, fourth, there’s this here boy.” 

“Is that all.?” asked Silver quietly. 

“Enough, too,” retorted George. “We’ll all swing 
and sun-dry for your bungling.” 

“Well, now, look here, I’ll answer these four p’ints ; 
one after another I’ll answer ’em. I made a hash o’ 
this cruise, did 1? Well, now, you all know what I 
wanted; and you all know, if that had been done, 
that we’d ’a’ been aboard the Hispaniola this night 
as ever was, every man of us alive, and fit, and full 
of good plum duff, and the treasure in the hold of 
her, by thunder ! Well, who crossed me.? Who forced 
my hand, as was the lawful cap’n.? Who tipped me 
the black spot the day we landed, and began this 
dance.? Ah, it’s a fine dance — I’m with you there — 
and looks mighty like a hornpipe in a rope’s end at 
Execution Dock by London town, it does. But who 
done it.? Why, it was Anderson, and Hands, and you, 
George Merry ! And you’re the last above board of 


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that same meddling crew; and you have the Davy 
Jones’s insolence to up and stand for cap’n over me 
— you, that sank the lot of us ! By the powers ! but 
this tops the stiffest yarn to nothing.” 

Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of 
George and his late comrades that these words had 
not been said in vain. 

“That’s for number one,” cried the accused, wiping 
the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking 
with a vehemence that shook the house. “Why, I 
give you my word, I’m sick to speak to you. You’ve 
neither sense nor memory, and I leave it to fancy 
where your mothers was that let you come to sea. 
Sea! Gentlemen o’ fortune! I reckon tailors is your 
trade.” 

“Go on, John,” said Morgan. “Speak up to the 
others.” 

“Ah, the others !” returned John. “They’re a nice 
lot, ain’t they.P You say this cruise is bungled. Ah, 
by gum, if you could understand how bad it’s 
bungled, you would see! We’re that near the gibbet 
that my neck’s stiff with thinking on it. You’ve seen 
’em, maybe, hanged in chains, birds about ’em, sea- 
men p’inting ’em out as they go down with the tide. 
‘Who’s that.?’ says one. ‘That! Why, that’s John 
Silver. I knowed him well,’ says another. And you 
can hear the chains a- jangle as you go about and 
reach for the other buoy. Now, that’s about where 
we are, every mother’s son of us, thanks to him, and 
Hands, and Anderson, and other ruination fools of 
you. And if you want to know about number four, 
and that boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn’t he a 
hostage.? Are we a-going to waste a hostage.? No, 
not us ; he might be our last chance, and I shouldn’t 


TREASURE ISLAND 


219 


wonder. Kill that boy ? not me, mates ! And number 
three.? Ah, well, there’s a deal to say to number three. 
Maybe you don’t count it nothing to have a real 
college doctor come to see you every day — you, 
John, with your head broke — or you, George 
Merry, that had the ague shakes upon you not six 
hours agone, and has your eyes the color of lemon 
peel to this same moment on the clock.? And maybe, 
perhaps, you didn’t know there was a consort com- 
ing, either .? But there is ; and not so long till then ; 
and we’ll see who’ll be glad to have a hostage when 
it comes to that. And as for number two, and why 
I made a bargain — well, you came crawling on your 
knees to me to make it — on your knees you came, 
you was that downhearted — and you’d have starved, 
too, if I hadn’t — but that’s a trifle ! you look there 
— that’s why !” 

And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I 
instantly recognized — none other than the chart on 
yellow paper, with the three red crosses, that I had 
found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the captain’s 
chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was more 
than I could fancy. 

But if it were inexplicable to me, the appearance 
of the chart was incredible to the surviving mutineers. 
They leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse. It went 
from hand to hand, one tearing it from another ; and 
by the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter 
with which they accompanied their examination, you 
would have thought, not only they were fingering the 
very gold, hut were at sea with it, besides, in safety. 

“Yes,” said one, “that’s Flint sure enough. J. F., 
and a score below, with a clove hitch to it ; so he done 
ever.” 


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“Mighty pretty,” said George. “But how are we 
to get away with it, and us no ship.^” 

Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself 
with a hand against the wall: “Now I give you warn- 
ing, George,” he cried. “One more word of your 
sauce, and I’ll call you down and fight you. How? 
Why, how do I know? You had ought to tell me that 
— you and the rest, that lost me my schooner, with 
your interference, burn you ! But not you, you can’t ; 
you hain’t got the invention of a cockroach. But 
civil you can speak, and shall, George Merry, you 
may lay to that.” 

“That’s fair enow,” said the old man Morgan. 

“Fair! I reckon so,” said the sea cook. “You lost 
the ship ; I found the treasure. Who’s the better 
man at that? And now I resign, by thunder! Elect 
whom you please to be your cap’n now ; I’m done with 
. it.” 

“Silver !” they cried. “Barbecue for ever ! Barbe- 
cue for cap’n!” 

“So that’s the toon, is it?” cried the cook. 
“George, I reckon you’ll have to wait another turn, 
friend; and lucky for you as I’m not a revengeful 
man. But that was never my way. And now, ship- 
mates, this black spot? ’Tain’t much good now, is it? 
Dick’s crossed his luck and spoiled his Bible, and 
that’s about all.” 

“It’ll do to kiss the book on still, won’t it?” 
growled Dick, who was evidently uneasy at the curse 
he had brought upon himself. 

“A Bible with a bit cut out!” returned Silver 
derisively. “Not it. It don’t bind no more’n a ballad 
book.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


221 


“Don’t it, though?” cried Dick, with a sort of joy. 
“Well, I reckon that’s worth having, too.” 

“Here, Jim — here’s a cur’osity for you,” said 
Silver ; and he tossed me the paper. 

It was a round, about the size of a crown piece. 
One side was blank, for it had been the last leaf ; the 
other contained a verse or two of Revelation — these 
words among the rest, which struck sharply home 
upon my mind: “Without are dogs and murderers.” 
The printed side had been blackened with wood ash, 
which already began to come off and soil my fingers ; 
on the blank side had been written with the same 
material the one word “Depposed.” I have that 
curiosity beside me at this moment; but not a trace 
of writing now remains beyond a single scratch, such 
as a man might make with his thumb nail. 

That was the end of the night’s business. Soon 
after, with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, 
and the outside of Silver’s vengeance was to put 
George Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him with 
death if he should prove unfaithful. 

It was long ere I could close an eye, and Heaven 
knows I had matter enough for thought in the man 
whom I had slain that afternoon, in my own most 
perilous position, and, above all, in the remarkable 
game that I saw Silver now engaged upon — keeping 
the mutineers together with one hand, and grasping, 
with the other, after every means, possible and im- 
possible, to make his peace and save his miserable 
life. He himself slept peacefully, and snored aloud; 
yet my heart was sore for him, wicked as he was, to 
think on the dark perils that environed, and the 
shameful gibbet that awaited him. 


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CHAPTER XXX 

ON PAROLE 

I WAS wakened — indeed, we were all wakened, 
for I could see even the sentinel shake himself to- 
gether from where he had fallen against the doorpost 
— by a clear, hearty voice hailing us from the 
margin of the wood : — 

“Blockhouse, ahoy !” it cried. “Here’s the 
doctor.” 

And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to 
hear the sound, yet my gladness was not without 
admixture. I remembered with confusion my insub- 
ordinate and stealthy conduct ; and when I saw where 
it had brought me — among what companions and 
surrounded by what dangers — I felt ashamed to 
look him in the face. 

He must have risen in the dark, for the day had 
hardly come ; and when I ran to a loophole and looked 
out, I saw him standing, like Silver once before, up 
to the midleg in creeping vapor. 

“You, doctor! Top o’ the morning to you, sir!” 
cried Silver, broad awake and beaming with good 
nature in a moment. “Bright and early, to be sure; 
and it’s the early bird, as the saying goes, that gets 
the rations. George, shake up your timbers, son, 
and help Dr. Livesey over the ship’s side. All a-doin’ 
well, your patients was — all well and merry.” 

So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop, with 
his crutch under his elbow, and one hand upon the 
side of the log house — quite the old John in voice, 
manner, and expression. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


223 


“We’ve quite a surprise for you, too, sir,” he con- 
tinued. “We’ve a little stranger here — he! he! A 
• noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking fit and taut 
as a fiddle ; slep’ like a supercargo, he did, right 
alongside of John — stem to stem we was, all night.” 

Dr. Livesey was by this time across the stockade 
and pretty near the cook ; and I could hear the alter- 
ation in his voice as he said : — 

“x\ot Jim.?” 

“The very same Jim as ever was,” said Silver. 

The doctor stopped outright, although he did not 
speak, and it was some seconds before he seemed able 
to move on. 

“Well, well,” he said, at last, “duty first and 
pleasure afterward, as you might have said yourself. 
Silver. Let us overhaul these patients of yours.” 

A moment afterward he had entered the block- 
house, and, with one grim nod to me, proceeded with 
his work among the sick. He seemed under no ap- 
prehension, though he must have known that his life, 
among these treacherous demons, depended on a 
hair ; and he rattled on to his patients as if he were 
paying an ordinary professional visit in a quiet 
English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on 
the men ; for they behaved to him as if nothing had 
occurred — as if he were still ship’s doctor, and they 
still faithful hands before the mast. 

“You’re doing well, my friend,” he said to the 
fellow with the bandaged head, “and if ever any per- 
son had a close shave, it was you ; your head must 
be as hard as iron. Well, George, how goes it.? 
You’re a pretty color, certainly; why, your liver, 
man, is upside down. Did you take that medicine.? 
Did he take that medicine, men.?” 


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“Ay, ay, sir, he took it, sure enough,” returned 
Morgan. 

“Because, you see, since I am mutineer’s doctor, • 
or prison doctor, as I prefer to call it,” says Dr. 
Livesey, in his pleasantest way, “I make it a point 
of honor not to lose a man for King George (God 
bless him!) and the gallows.” 

The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed 
the home thrust in silence. 

“Dick don’t feel well, sir,” said one. 

“Don’t he.?” replied the doctor. “Well, step up 
here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, I should 
be surprised if he did! the man’s tongue is fit to 
frighten the French. Another fever.” 

“Ah, there,” said Morgan, “that corned of sp’iling 
Bibles.” 

“That corned — as you call it — of being arrant 
asses,” retorted the doctor, “and not having sense 
enough to know honest air from poison, and the dry 
land from a vile, pestiferous slough. I think it most 
probable — though, of course, it’s only an opinion 
— that you’ll all have the deuce to pay before you 
get that malaria out of your systems. Camp in a 
bog, would you.? Silver, I’m surprised at you. You’re 
less of a fool than many, take you all round; but 
you don’t appear to me to have the rudiments of a 
notion of the rules of health.” 

“Well,” he added, after he had dosed them round, 
and they had taken his prescriptions, with really 
laughable humility, more like charity school children 
than bloodguilty mutineers and pirates — “well, 
that’s done for to-day. And now I should wish to 
have a talk with that boy, please.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


225 


And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly. 

George Merry was at the door, spitting and 
spluttering over some bad-tasted medicine; but at 
the first word of the doctor’s proposal he swung 
round with a deep flush, and cried “No!” and swore. 

Silver struck the barrel with his open hand. 

“Si-lence !” he roared, and looked about him posi- 
tively like a lion. “Doctor,” he went on, in his usual 
tones, “I was a-thinking of that, knowing as how you 
had a fancy for the boy. We’re all humbly grateful 
for your kindness, and, as you see, puts faith in you, 
and takes the drugs down like that much grog. And 
I take it, I’ve found a way as’ll suit all. Hawkins, 
will you give me your word of honor as a young 
gentleman — for a young gentleman you are, al- 
though poor born — your word of honor not to slip 
your cable 

I readily gave the pledge required. 

“Then, doctor,” said Silver, “you just step out- 
side o’ that stockade, and once you’re there. I’ll bring 
the boy down on the inside, and I reckon you can 
yarn through the spars. Good day to you, sir, and 
all our dooties to the squire and Cap’n Smollett.” 

The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but 
Silver’s black looks had restrained, broke out im- 
mediately the doctor had left the house. Silver was 
roundly accused of playing double — of trying to 
make a separate peace for himself — of sacrificing 
the interests of his accomplices and victims ; and, in 
one word, of the identical, exact thing that he was 
doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this case, that 
I could not imagine how he was to turn their anger. 
But he was twice the man the rest w'ere ; and his last 
night’s victory had given him a huge preponderance 


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on their minds. He called them all the fools and 
dolts you can imagine, said it was necessary I should 
talk to the doctor, fluttered the chart in their faces, 
asked them if they could afford to break the treaty 
the very day they were bound a-treasure hunting. 

“No, by thunder!” he cried, “it’s us must break 
the treaty when the time comes; and till then I’ll 
gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots with 
brandy.” 

And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked 
out upon his crutch, with his hand on my shoulder, 
leaving them in a disarray, and silenced by his volu- 
bility rather than convinced. 

“Slow, lad, slow,” he said. “They might round 
upon us in a twinkle of an eye, if we was seen to 
hurry.” 

Very deliberately, then, did we advance across the 
sand to where the doctor awaited us on the other 
side of the stockade, and as soon as we were within 
easy speaking distance. Silver stopped. 

“You’ll make a note of this here also, doctor,” says 
he, “and the boy’ll tell you how I saved his life, and 
were deposed for it, too, and you may lay to that. 
Doctor, when a man’s steering as near the wind as 
me — playing chuck-farthing with the last breath in 
his body, like — you wouldn’t think it too much, 
mayhap, to give him one good word.'’ You’ll please 
bear in mind it’s not my life only now — it’s that 
boy’s into the bargain ; and you’ll speak me fair, 
doctor, and give me a bit o’ hope to go on, for the 
sake of mercy.” 

Silver was a changed man, once he was out there 
and had his back to his friends and the blockhouse; 


TREASURE ISLAND 


227 


his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his voice trem- 
bled ; never was a soul more dead in earnest. 

“Why, John, you’re not afraid?” asked Dr. Live- 
sey. 

“Doctor, I’m no coward ; no, not I — not so 
much!” and he snapped his fingers. “If I was I 
wouldn’t say it. But I’ll own up fairly, I’ve the 
shakes upon me for the gallows. You’re a good man 
and a true; I never seen a better man! And you’ll 
not forget what I done good, not any more than 
you’ll forget the bad, I know. And I step aside — 
see here — and leave you and Jim alone. And you’ll 
put that down for me, too, for it’s a long stretch, is 
that !” 

So saying, he stepped back a little way, till he was 
out of earshot, and there sat down upon a tree stump 
and began to whistle ; spinning round now and again 
upon his seat so as to command a sight, sometimes of 
me and the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly 
ruffians as they went to and fro in the sand, between 
the fire — which they were busy rekindling — and 
the house, from which they brought forth pork and 
bread to make the breakfast. 

“So, Jim,” said the doctor sadly, “here you are. 
As you have brewed, so shall you drink, my boy. 
Heaven knows, I cannot find it in my heart to blame 
you ; but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind : 
when Captain Smollett was well, you dared not have 
gone off; and when he was ill, and couldn’t help it, 
by George, it was downright cowardly !” 

I will own that I here began to weep. “Doctor,” 
I said, “you might spare me. I have blamed myself 
enough ; my life’s forfeit anyway, and I should have 
been dead by now, if Silver hadn’t stood for me ; and 


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doctor, believe this, 1 can die — and I dare say I 
deserve it — but what I fear is torture. If they come 
to torture me ” 

“Jim,” the doctor interrupted, and his voice was 
quite changed, “Jim, I can’t have this. Whip over, 
and we’ll run for it.” 

“Doctor,” said I, “I passed my word.” 

“I know, I know,” he cried. “We can’t help that, 
Jim, now. I’ll take it on my shoulders, holus bolus, 
blame and shame, my boy; but stay here, I cannot 
let you. Jump! One jump, and you’re out, and we’ll 
run for it like antelopes.” 

“No,” I replied, “you know right well you wouldn’t 
do the thing yourself ; neither you, nor squire, nor 
captain ; and no more will I. Silver trusted me ; I 
passed my word, and back I go. But, doctor, you 
did not let me finish. If they come to torture me, I 
might let slip a word of where the ship is ; for I got 
the ship, part by luck and part by risking, and she 
lies in North Inlet, on the southern beach, and just 
below high water. At half tide she must be high and 
dry.” 

“The ship I” exclaimed the doctor. 

Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he 
heard me out in silence. 

“There is a kind of fate in this,” he observed, 
when I had done. “Every step, it’s you that saves 
our lives ; and do you suppose by any chance that we 
are going to let you lose yours ? That would be a poor 
return, my boy. You found out the plot; you 
found Ben Gunn — the best deed that ever you did, 
or will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by 
Jupiter, and talking of Ben Gunn! why, this is the 
mischief in person. Silver !” he cried, “Silver ! — I’ll 


TREASURE ISLAND 


229 


give you a piece of advice,” he continued, as the cook 
drew near again; “don’t you be in any great hurry 
after that treasure.” 

“Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain’t,” 
said Silver. “I can only, asking your pardon, save 
my life and the boy’s by seeking for that treasure; 
and you may lay to that.” 

“Well, Silver,” replied the doctor, “if that is so. 
I’ll go one step further : look out for the squalls when 
you find it.” 

“Sir,” said Silver, “as between man and man, that’s 
too much and too little. What you’re after, why 
you left the blockhouse, why you given me that there 
chart, I don’t know, now, do I.? and yet I done your 
bidding with my eyes shut and never a word of hope ! 
But no, this here’s too much. If you won’t tell me 
what you mean plain out, just say so, and I’ll leave 
the helm.” 

“No,” said the doctor, musingly, “I’ve no right to 
say more; it’s not my secret, you see. Silver, or, I 
give you my word, I’d tell it you. But I’ll go as 
far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond; for 
I’ll have my wig sorted by the captain or I’m mis- 
taken ! And, first, I’ll give you a bit of hope : Silver, 
if we both get alive out of this wolf trap. I’ll do my 
best to save you, short of perjury.” 

Silver’s face was radiant. “You couldn’t say 
more, I’m sure, sir, not if you was my mother,” he 
cried. 

“Well, that’s my first concession,” added the doc- 
tor. “My second is a piece of advice : Keep the boy 
close beside you, and when you need help, halloo. 
I’m off to seek it for you, and that itself will show 
you if I speak at random. Good-by, Jim.” 


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And Dr. Livesey shook hands with me through the 
stockade, nodded to Silver, and set off at a brisk pace 
into the wood. 


CHAPTER XXXI 

THE TREASURE HUNT FLINt’s POINTER 

“Jim,” said Silver, when we were alone, “if I 
saved your life, you saved mine ; and I’ll not forget 
it. I seen the doctor waving you to run for it — 
with the tail of my eye, I did; and I seen you say no, 
as plain as hearing. Jim, that’s one to you. This 
is the first glint of hope I had since the attack 
failed, and I owe it you. And now, Jim, we’re to go 
in for this here treasure hunting, with sealed orders, 
too, and I don’t like it; and you and me must stick 
close, back to back like, and we’ll save our necks in 
spite o’ fate and fortune.” 

Just then a man hailed us from the fire that break- 
fast was ready, and we were soon seated here and 
there about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. 
They had lit a fire fit to roast an ox ; and it was now 
grown so hot that they could only approach it from 
the windward, and even there not without precau- 
tion. In the same wasteful spirit, they had cooked, 
I suppose, three times more than we could eat ; and 
one of them, with an empty laugh, threw what was 
left into the fire, which blazed and roared again over 
this unusual fuel. I never in my life saw men so 
careless of the morrow ; hand to mouth is the only 
w'ord that can describe their way of doing ; and 


TREASURE ISLAND 


231 


what with wasted food and sleeping sentries, though 
they were bold enough for a brush and be done with 
it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything like 
a prolonged campaign. 

Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon 
his shoulder, had not a word of blame for their reck- 
lessness. And this the more surprised me, for I 
thought he had never shown himself so cunning as he 
did then. 

“Ay mates,” said he, “it’s lucky you have Barbecue 
to think for you with this here head. I got what I 
wanted, I did. Sure enough, they have the ship. 
Where they have it, I don’t know yet; but once we 
hit the treasure, we’ll have to jump about and find 
out. And then, mates, us that has the boats, I 
reckon, has the upper hand.” 

Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of 
the hot bacon ; thus he restored their hope and con- 
fidence, and, I more than suspect, repaired his own at 
the same time. 

“As for hostage,” he continued, “that’s his last 
talk, 1 guess, with them he loves so dear. I’ve got 
my piece o’ news, and thanky to him for that; but 
it’s over and done. I’ll take him in a line when we go 
treasure hunting, for we’ll keep him like so much 
gold, in case of accidents, you mark, and in the mean- 
time. Once we got the ship and treasure both, and 
off to sea like jolly companions, why, then, we’ll talk 
Mr. Hawkins over, we will, and we’ll give him his 
share, to be sure, for all his kindness.” 

It was no wonder the men were in a good humor 
now. For my part, I was horribly cast down. Should 
the scheme he had now sketched prove feasible. 
Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not hesitate 


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to adopt it. He had still a foot in either camp, and 
there was no doubt he would prefer wealth and 
freedom with the pirates to a bare escape from 
hanging, which was the best he had to hope on our 
side. 

Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was 
forced to keep his faith with Dr. Livesey, even then 
what danger lay before us ! What a moment that 
would be when the suspicions of his followers turned 
to certainty, and he and I should have to fight for 
dear life — he, a cripple, and I, a boy — against five 
strong and active seamen! 

Add to this double apprehension the mystery that 
still hung over the behavior of my friends ; their 
unexplained desertion of the stockade ; their 
inexplicable cession of the chart ; or, harder still to 
understand, the doctor’s last warning to Silver, 
“Look out for squalls when you find it;” and you 
will readily believe how little taste I found in my 
breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth 
behind my captors on the quest for treasure. 

We made a curious figure, had any one been there 
to see us ; all in soiled sailor clothes, and all but me 
armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung about 
him — one before and one behind — besides the 
great cutlass at his waist, and a pistol in each pocket 
of his square-tailed coat. To complete his strange 
appearance. Captain Flint sat perched upon his 
shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of purposeless 
sea talk. I had a line about my waist, and followed 
obediently after the sea cook, who held the loose end 
of the rope, now in his free hand, now between his 
powerful teeth. For all the world, I was led like a 
dancing bear. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


233 


The other men were variously burdened ; some 
carrying picks and shovels — for that had been the 
very first necessary they brought ashore from the 
Hispaniola — others laden with pork, bread, and 
brandy for the midday meal. All the stores, I ob- 
served, came from our stock; and I could see the 
truth of Silver’s words the night before. Had he 
not struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his 
mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been 
driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of 
their hunting. Water would have been little to their 
taste ; a sailor is not usually a good shot ; and, be- 
sides all that, when they were so short of eatables, 
it is not likely they would be very flush of powder. 

Well, thus equipped, we all set out — even the 
fellow with the broken head, who should certainly 
have kept in shadow — and straggled, one after an- 
other, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. 
Even these bore trace of the drunken folly of the 
pirates, one in a broken thwart, and both in their 
muddied and unbaled condition. Both were to be 
carried along with us, for the sake of safety ; and 
so, with our numbers divided between them, we set 
forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. 

As we pulled over, there was some discussion on 
the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large 
to be a guide ; and the terms of the note on the back, 
as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They 
ran, the reader may remember, thus : — 

“Tall tree, Spyglass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of 
N. N. E. 

“Skeleton Island E. S. E. and by E. 

“Ten feet.” 


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A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, 
right before us, the anchorage was bounded by a 
plateau from two to three hundred feet high, ad- 
joining on the north the sloping southern shoulder 
of the Spyglass, and rising again toward the south 
into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Mizzenmast 
Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with 
pine trees of varying height. Every here and there, 
one of a different species rose forty or fifty feet 
clear above its neighbors, and which of these w'as the 
particular “tall tree” of Captain Flint could only 
be decided on the spot, and by the readings of the 
compass. 

Yet, although that was the case, every man on 
board the boats had picked a favorite of his own ere 
we were halfway over. Long John alone shrugging 
his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were 
there. 

We pulled easily, by Silver’s directions, not to 
weary the hands prematurely ; and, after quite a long 
passage, landed at the mouth of the second river — 
that which runs down a woody cleft of the Spyglass. 
Thence, bending to our left, we began to ascend the 
slope toward the plateau. 

At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a 
matted, marish vegetation, greatly delayed our 
progress ; but by little and little the hill began to 
steepen and become stony under foot, and the wood 
to change its character and to grow in a more open 
order. It was, indeed, a most pleasant portion of 
the island that we were now approaching. A heavy- 
scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost 
taken the place of grass. Thickets of green nutmeg 
trees were dotted here and there with the red 


TREASURE ISLAND 


235 


columns and the broad shadow of the pines ; and the 
first mingled their spice with the aroma of the others. 
The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and this, 
under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful refresh- 
ment to our senses. 

The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, 
shouting and leaping to and fro. About the center, 
and a good way behind the rest. Silver and I followed 
— I tethered by my rope, he plowing, with deep 
pants, among the sliding gravel. From time to time, 
indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or he must have 
missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill. 

We had thus proceeded for about half a mile and 
were approaching the brow of the plateau, when the 
man upon the farthest left began to cry aloud, as if 
in terror. Shout after shout came from him, and the 
others began to run in his direction. 

“He can’t ’a’ found the treasure,” said old Mor- 
gan, hurrying past us from the right, “for that’s 
clean a-top.” 

Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, 
it was something very different. At the foot of a 
pretty big pine, and involved in a green creeper, 
which had even partly lifted some of the smaller 
bones, a human skeleton lay, with a few shreds of 
clothing, on the ground. I believe a chill struck for 
a moment to every heart. 

“He was a seaman,” said George Merry, who, 
bolder than the rest, had gone up close, and was ex- 
amining the rags of clothing. “Leastways, this is 
good sea cloth.” 

“Ay, ay,” said Silver, “like enough; you wouldn’t 
look to find a bishop here, I reckon. But what sort 
of a way is that for bones to lie.?* ’Tain’t in natur’.” 


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Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible 
to fancy that the body was in a natural position. 
But for some disarray (the work, perhaps, of the 
birds that had fed upon him, or of the slow-growing 
creeper that had gradually enveloped his remains) 
the man lay perfectly straight — his feet pointing in 
one direction, his hands, raised above his head like a 
diver’s, pointing directly in the opposite. 

“I’ve taken a notion into my old numskull,” ob- 
served Silver. “Here’s the compass ; there’s the tip- 
top p’int o’ Skeleton Island, stickin’ out like a tooth. 
Just take a bearing, will you, along the line of them 
bones.” 

It was done. The body pointed straight in the 
direction of the island, and the compass read duly 
E. S. E. and by E. 

“I thought so,” cried the cook; “this here is a 
p’inter. Right up there is our line for the Pole Star 
and the jolly dollars. But, by thunder! if it don’t 
make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of 
his jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six was 
alone here ; he killed ’em, every man ; and this one he 
hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver my 
timbers I They’re long bones, and the hair’s been 
yellow. Ay, that would be Allardyce. You mind 
Allardyce, Tom Morgan?” 

“Ay, ay,” returned Morgan, “I mind him ; he owed 
me money, he did, and took my knife ashore with 
him.” 

“Speaking of knives,” said another, “why don’t we 
find his’n lying round? Flint warn’t the man to pick 
a seaman’s pocket ; and the birds, I guess, would leave 
it be.” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


237 


“By the powers, and that’s true!” cried Silver. 

“There ain’t a thing left here,” said Merry, still 
feeling round among the bones, “not a copper doit 
nor a baccy box. It don’t look nat’ral to me.” 

“No, by gum, it don’t,” agreed Silver; “not 
nat’ral, nor not nice, says you. Great guns! mess- 
mates, but if Flint was living, this would be a hot 
spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we ; 
and bones is what they are now.” 

“I saw him dead with these here deadlights,” said 
Morgan. “Billy took me in. There he laid, with 
penny pieces on his eyes.” 

“Dead — ay, sure enough he’s dead and gone be- 
low,” said the fellow with the bandage; “but if ever 
sperrit walked, it would be Flint’s. Dear heart, but 
he died bad, did Flint!” 

“Ay, that he did,” observed another; “now he 
raged, and now he hollered for the rum, and now he 
sang. ‘Fifteen Men’ were his only song, mates ; and 
I tell you true, I never rightly liked to hear it since. 
It was main hot, and the windy was open, and I hear 
that old song cornin’ out as clear as clear — and the 
death haul on the man already.” 

“Come, come,” said Silver, “stow this talk. He’s 
dead, and he don’t walk, that I know; leastways, he 
won’t walk by day, and you may lay to that. Care 
killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons.” 

We started, certainly; but in spite of the hot sun 
and the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran 
separate and shouting through the wood, but kept 
side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror 
of the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits. 


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CHAPTER XXXII 

THE TREASURE HUNT THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES 

Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, 
partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole 
party sat down as soon as they had gained the brow 
of the ascent. 

The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the 
west, this spot on which we had paused, commanded 
a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the 
tree tops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed 
with surf ; behind, we not only looked down upon the 
anchorage and Skeleton Island, but saw — clear 
across the spit and the eastern lowlands — a great 
field of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose 
the Spyglass, here dotted with single pines, there 
black with precipices. There was no sound but that 
of the distant breakers, mounting from all round, and 
the chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a 
man, not a sail upon the sea; the very largeness of 
the view increased the sense of solitude. 

Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his 
compass. 

“There are three ‘tall trees,’ ” said he, “about in 
the right line from Skeleton Island. ‘Spyglass 
shoulder,’ I take it, means that lower p’int there. 
It’s child play to find the stuff now. I’ve half a 
mind to dine first.” 

“I don’t feel sharp,” growled Morgan. “Thinkin’ 
o’ Flint — I think it were — as done me.” 

“Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he’s 
dead,” said Silver. 

“He were an ugly devil,” cried a third pirate with 
a shudder; “that blue in the face, too!” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


239 


“That was how the rum took him,” added Merry. 
“Blue! well, I reckon he was blue. That’s a true 
word.” 

Ever since they had found the skeleton and got 
upon this train of thought, they had spoken lower 
and lower, and they had almost got to whispering 
by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly inter- 
rupted the silence of the wood. All of a sudden, out 
of the middle of the trees in front of us, a thin, high, 
trembling voice’ struck up the well-known air and 
words : — 

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — 

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !” 

I never have seen men more dreadfully affected 
than the pirates. The color went from their six 
faces like enchantment; some leaped to their feet, 
some clawed hold of others ; Morgan groveled on the 
ground. 

“It’s Flint, by !” cried Merry. 

The song had stopped as suddenly as it began — 
broken off, you would have said, in the middle of a 
note, as though some one had laid his hand upon the 
singer’s mouth. Coming so far through the clear, 
sunny atmosphere among the green tree tops, I 
thought it had sounded airily and sweetly; and the 
effect on my companions was the stranger. 

“Come,” said Silver, struggling with his ashen 
lips to get the word out, “this won’t do. Stand by 
to go about. This is a rum start, and I can’t name 
the voice : but it’s some one skylarking — some one 
that’s flesh and blood, and you may lay to that.” 

His courage had come back as he spoke, and some 
of the color to his face along with it. Already the 


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others had begun to lend an ear to this encourage- 
ment, and were coming a little to themselves, when 
the same voice broke out again — not this time sing- 
ing, but in a faint distant hail, that echoed yet 
fainter among the clefts of the Spyglass. 

“Darby M’Graw,” it wailed — for that is the word 
that best describes the sound — “Darby M’Graw ! 
Darby M’Graw!” again and again and again; and 
then rising a little higher, and with an oath that I 
leave out, “Fetch aft the rum. Darby!” 

The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, 
their eyes starting from their heads. Long after the 
voice had died away they still stared in silence, 
dreadfully, before them. 

“That fixes it!” grasped one. “Let’s go.” 

“They was his last words,” moaned Morgan, “his 
last words above board.” 

Dick had his Bible out, and was praying volubly. 
He had been well brought up, had Dick, before he 
came to sea and fell among bad companions. 

Still, Silver was unconquered. I could hear his 
teeth rattle in his head; but he had not yet sur- 
rendered. 

“Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby,” 
he muttered; “not one but us that’s here.” And 
then, making a great effort, “Shipmates,” he cried, 
“I’m here to get that stuff, and I’ll not be beat by 
man nor devil. I never was feared of Flint in his 
life, and, by the powers. I’ll face him dead. There’s 
seven hundred thousand pound not a quarter of a 
mile from here. When did ever a gentleman o’ 
fortune show his stern to that much dollars, for a 
boosy old seaman with a blue mug — and him dead, 
too .P” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


241 


But there was no sign of reawakening courage in 
his followers ; rather, indeed, of growing terror at 
the irreverence of his words. 

“Belay there, John!” said Merry. “Don’t you 
cross a sperrit.” 

And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They 
would have run away severally had they dared; but 
fear kept them together, and kept them close by 
John, as if his daring helped them. He, on his part, 
had pretty well fought his weakness down. 

“Sperrit.? Well, maybe,” he said. “But there’s 
one thing not clear to me. There was an echo. 
Now, no man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow; well, 
then, what’s he doing with an echo to him, I should 
like to know.? That ain’t in natur’, surely.?” 

This argument seemed weak enough to me. But 
you can never tell what will affect the superstitious, 
and, to my wonder, George Merry was greatly re- 
lieved. 

“Well, that’s so,” he said. “You’ve a head upon 
your shoulders, John, and no mistake. ’Bout ship, 
mates I This here crew is on a wrong tack, I do be- 
lieve. And come to think of it, it was like Flint’s 
voice, I grant you, but not just so clear away like 
it, after all. It was liker somebody else’s voice now 
— it was liker ” 

“By the powers, Ben Gunn!” roared Silver. 

“Ay, and so it were,” cried Morgan, springing on 
his knees. “Ben Gunn it were!” 

“It don’t make much odds, do it, now.?” asked 
Dick. “Ben Gunn’s not here in the body, any more’n 
Flint.” 

But the older hands greeted this remark with 
scorn. 


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“Why nobody minds Ben Gunn,” cried Merry; 
“dead or alive, nobody minds him.” 

It was extraordinary how their spirits had re- 
turned, and how the natural color had revived in 
their faces. Soon they were chatting together, with 
intervals of listening; and not long after, hearing 
no further sound, they shouldered the tools and set 
forth again. Merry walking first with Silver’s com- 
pass to keep them on the right line with Skeleton 
Island. He had said the truth; dead or alive, no- 
body minded Ben Gunn. 

Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around 
him as he went, with fearful glances ; but he found 
no sympathy, and Silver even joked him on his pre- 
cautions. 

“I told you,” said he — “I told you, you had 
sp’iled your Bible. If it ain’t no good to swear by, 
what do you suppose a sperrit would give for it.^ 
Not that!” and he snapped his big fingers, halting 
a moment on his crutch. 

But Dick was not to be comforted ; indeed, it was 
soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick; hast- 
ened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his alarm, 
the fever, predicted by Dr. Livesey, was evidently 
growing swiftly higher. 

It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; 
our way lay a little downhill, for, as I have said, the 
plateau tilted toward the west. The pines, great and 
small, grew wide apart ; and even between the clumps 
of nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the 
hot sunshine. Striking, as we did, pretty near north- 
west across the island, we drew, on the one hand, ever 
nearer under the shoulders of the Spyglass, and on 


TREASURE ISLAND 


243 


the other, looked ever wider over that western bay 
where I had once tossed and trembled in the coracle. 

The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the 
bearing, proved the wrong one. So with the second. 
The third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air 
above a clump of underwood ; a giant of a vegetable, 
with a red column as big as a cottage, and a wide 
shadow around in which a company could have 
maneuvered. It was conspicuous far to sea both 
on the east and west, and might have been entered 
as a sailing mark upon the chart. 

But it was not its size that now impressed my 
companions ; it was the knowledge that seven hundred 
thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below 
its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, 
as they drew nearer, swallowed up their previous 
terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads ; their 
feet grew speedier and lighter ; their whole soul was 
bound up in that fortune, that whole life-time of 
extravagance and pleasure, that lay waiting there 
for each of them. 

Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch ; his 
nostrils stood out and quivered ; he cursed like a 
madman when the flies settled on his hot and shiny 
countenance; he plucked furiously at the line that 
held me to him, and, from time to time, turned his 
eyes upon me with a deadly look. Certainly he took 
no pains to hide his thoughts ; and certainly I read 
them like print. In the immediate nearness of the 
gold, all else had been forgotten; his promise and 
the doctor’s warning were both things of the past; 
and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon 
the treasure, find and board the Hispaniola under 
cover of night, cut every honest throat about that 


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island, and sail away as he had at first intended, 
laden with crimes and riches. 

Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard 
for me to keep up with the rapid pace of the treasure 
hunters. Now and again I stumbled; and it was then 
that Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and 
launched at me his murderous glances. Dick, who 
had dropped behind us, and now brought up the 
rear, was babbling to himself both prayers and 
curses, as his fever kept rising. This also added to 
my wretchedness, and, to crown all, I was haunted 
by the thought of the tragedy that had once been 
acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer 
with the blue face — he who died at Savannah, sing- 
ing and shouting for drink — had there, with his 
own hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove, 
that was now so peaceful, must then have rung with 
cries, I thought; and even with the thought I could 
believe I heard it ringing still. 

We were now at the margin of the thicket. 

“Huzza, mates, all together !” shouted Merry ; 
and the foremost broke into a run. 

And suddenly, not ten yards farther, we beheld 
them stop. A low cry arose. Silver doubled his 
pace, digging away with the foot of his crutch like 
one possessed; and next moment he and I had come 
also to a dead halt. 

Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, 
for the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted 
on the bottom. In this were the shaft of a pick 
broken in two and the boards of several packing 
cases strewn around. On one of these boards I saw, 
branded with a hot iron, the name Walrus — the 
name of Flint’s ship. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


245 


All was clear to probation. The cache had been 
found and rifled : the seven hundred thousand pounds 
were gone ! 


CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE FAEE OF A CHIEFTAIN 

There never was such an overturn in this world. 
Each of these six men was as though he had been 
struck. But with Silver the blow passed almost 
instantly. Every thought of his soul had been set 
full stretch, like a racer, on that money; well, he 
was brought up in a single second, dead; and he 
kept his head, found his temper, and changed his 
plan before the others had had time to realize the 
disappointment. 

“Jim,” he whispered, “take that, and stand by for 
trouble.” 

And he passed me a double-barreled pistol. 

At the same time he began quietly moving north- 
ward, and in a few steps had put the hollow between 
us two and the other five. Then he looked at me and 
nodded, as much as to say, “Here is a narrow 
corner,” as, indeed, I thought it was. His looks 
were now quite friendly ; and I was so revolted at 
these constant changes, that I could not forbear 
whispering, “So you’ve changed sides again.” 

There was no time left for him to answer in. The 
buccaneers, with oaths and cries, began to leap, one 
after another, into the pit, and to dig with their 
fingers, throwing the boards aside as they did so. 
Morgan found a piece of gold. He held it up with 


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a perfect spout of oaths. It was a two-guinea piece, 
and it went from hand to hand among them for a 
quarter of a minute. 

“Two guineas !” roared Merry, shaking it at 
Silver. “That’s your seven hundred thousand 
pounds, is it? You’re the man for bargains, ain’t 
you? You’re him that never bungled nothing, you 
wooden-headed lubber !” 

“Dig away, boys,” said Silver, with the coolest 
insolence; “you’ll find some pignuts and I shouldn’t 
wonder.” 

“Pignuts !” repeated Merry, in a scream. “Mates, 
do you hear that? I tell you, now, that man there 
knew it all along. Look in the face of him, and 
you’ll see it wrote there.” 

“Ah, Merry,” remarked Silver, “standing for 
cap’n again? You’re a pushing lad, to be sure.” 

But this time every one was entirely in Merry’s 
favor. They began to scramble out of the excava- 
tion, darting furious glances behind them. One 
thing I observed, which looked well for us ; they all 
got out upon the opposite side from Silver. 

Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the 
other, the pit between us, and nobody screwed up 
high enough to offer the first blow. Silver never 
moved ; he watched them, very upright on his crutch, 
and looked as cool as ever I saw him. He was brave 
and no mistake. 

At last. Merry seemed to think a speech might 
help matters. 

“Mates,” said he, “there’s two of them alone 
there ; one’s the old cripple that brought us all here 
and blundered us down to this ; the other’s that cub 
that I mean to have the heart of. Now, mates ” 


TREASURE ISLAND 


247 


He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly 
meant to lead a charge. But just then — crack! 
crack ! crack ! — three musket shots flashed out of 
the thicket. Merry tumbled head foremost into the 
excavation ; the man with the bandage spun round 
like a teetotum, and fell all his length upon his side, 
where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other 
three turned and ran for it with all their might. 

Before you could wink. Long John had fired two 
barrels of a pistol into the struggling Merry; and 
as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the last 
agony, “George,” said he, “I reckon I settled you.” 

At the same moment the doctor. Gray, and Ben 
Gunn joined us, with smoking muskets, from among 
the nutmeg trees. 

“Forward!” cried the doctor. “Double quick, my 
lads. We must head ’em off the boats.” 

And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plung- 
ing through the bushes to the chest. 

I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with 
us. The work that man went through, leaping on 
his crutch till the muscles of his chest were fit to 
burst, was work no sound man ever equaled; and so 
thinks the doctor. As it was, he was already thirty 
yards behind us, and on the verge of strangling, 
when we reached the brow of the slope. 

“Doctor,” he hailed, “see there! no hurry!” 

Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open 
part of the plateau, we could see the three survivors 
still running in the same direction as they had 
started, right for Mizzenmast Hill. We were already 
between them and the boats ; and so we four sat down 
to breathe, while Long John, mopping his face, came 
slowly up with us. 


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“Thank ye kindly, doctor,” says he. “You came 
in in about the nick, I guess, for me and Hawkins. 
And so it’s you, Ben Gunn!” he added. “Well, 
you’re a nice one to be sure.” 

“I’m Ben Gunn, I am,” replied the maroon, 
wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment. “And,” 
he added, after a long pause, “how do, Mr. Silver 
Pretty well, I thank ye, says you.” 

“Ben, Ben,” murmured Silver, “to think as you’ve 
done me !” 

The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pick- 
axes, deserted, in their flight, by the mutineers ; and 
then, as we proceeded leisurely downhill to where the 
boats were lying, related, in a few words, what had 
taken place. It was a story that profoundly in- 
terested Silver; and Ben Gunn, the half-idiot ma- 
roon, was the hero from beginning to end. 

Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the 
island, had found the skeleton — it was he that had 
rifled it ; he had found the treasure ; he had dug it 
up (it was the haft of his pickax that lay broken in 
the excavation) ; he had carried it on his back, in 
many weary journeys, from the foot of the tall pine 
to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at the 
northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain 
stored in safety since two months before the arrival 
of the Hispaniola. 

When the doctor had wormed this secret from 
him, on the afternoon of the attack, and when, next 
morning, he saw the anchorage deserted, he had gone 
to Silver, given him the chart, which was now useless, 
given him the stores — for Ben Gunn’s cave was 
well supplied with goats’ meat salted by himself — 
given anything and everything to get a chance of 


TREASURE ISLAND 


249 


moving in safety from the stockade to the two- 
pointed hill, there to be clear of malaria and keep a 
guard upon the money. 

“As for you, Jim,” he said, “it went against my 
heart, but I did what I thought best for those who 
had stood by their duty ; and if you were not one of 
these, whose fault was it.^” 

That morning, finding that I was to be involved 
in the horrid disappointment he had prepared for the 
mutineers, he had run all the way to the cave, and, 
leaving squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray 
and the maroon, and started, making the diagonal 
across the island, to be at hand beside the pine. 
Soon, however, he saw that our party had the start 
of him ; and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had been 
despatched in front to do his best alone. Then it 
had occurred to him to work upon the superstitions 
of his former shipmates ; and he was so far success- 
ful that Gray and the doctor had come up and were 
already ambushed before the arrival of the treasure 
hunters. 

“Ah,” said Silver, “it were fortunate for me that 
I had Hawkins here. You would have let old John 
be cut to bits, and never given it a thought, doctor.” 

“Not a thought,” replied Dr. Livesey cheerily. 

And by this time we had reached the gigs. The 
doctor, with the pickax, demolished one of them, and 
then we all got aboard the other and set out to go 
iMund by sea for North Inlet. 

This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, 
though he was almost killed already with fatigue, 
Avas set to an oar, like the rest of us, and we were 
soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we 
passed out of the straits and doubled the southeast 


250 


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corner of the island, round which, four days ago, we 
had towed the Hispaniola. 

As we passed the two-pointed hill, we could see 
the black mouth of Ben Gunn’s cave, and a figure 
standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was the 
squire; and we waved a handkerchief and gave him 
three cheers, in which the voice of Silver joined as 
heartily as any. 

Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of 
North Inlet, what should we meet but the Hispaniola, 
cruising by herself.^ The last flood had lifted her; 
and had there been much wind, or a strong tide 
current, as in the southern anchorage, we should 
never have found her more, or found her stranded 
beyond help. As it was, there was little amiss, be- 
yond the wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor 
was got ready, and dropped in a fathom and a half 
of water. We all pulled round again to Rum Cove, 
the nearest point for Ben Gunn’s treasure house; 
and then Gray, single-handed, returned with the gig 
to the Hispaniola, where he was to pass the night on 
guard. 

A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the 
entrance of the cave. At the top, the squire met us. 
To me he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of 
my escapade, either in the way of blame or praise. 
To Silver’s polite salute he somewhat flushed. 

“John Silver,” he said, “you’re a prodigious vil- 
lain and impostor — a monstrous impostor, sir. I 
am told I am not to prosecute you. Well, then, I 
will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your 
neck like millstones.” 

“Thank you kindly, sir,” replied Long John, again 
saluting. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


251 


1 dare you to thank me!” cried the squire. “It 
is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back.” 

And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a 
large, airy place, with a little spring and a pool of 
clear water, overhung with ferns. The floor was 
sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett; and 
in a far corner, only duskily flickered over by the 
blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals 
built of bars of gold. That was Flint’s treasure 
that we had come so far to seek, and that had cost 
already the lives of seventeen men from the His- 
paniola. How many it had cost in the amassing, 
wliat blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled 
on the deep, what brave men walking the plank blind- 
fold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies and 
cruelty, perhaps no man alive could telli Yet there 
were still three upon that island — Silver, and old 
Morgan, and Ben Gunn — who had each taken his 
share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain to 
share in the reward. 

“Come in, Jim,” said the captain. “You’re a 
good hoy in your line, Jim; but I don’t think you 
and me’ll go to sea again. You’re too much of the 
born favorite for me. Is that you, John Silver.? 
What brings you here, man.?” 

“Come back to my dooty, sir,” returned Silver. 

“Ah !” said the captain ; and that was all he said. 

What a supper I had of it that night, with all my 
friends around me; and what a meal it was, with 
Ben Gunn’s salted goat, and some delicacies and a 
bottle of old wine from the Hispaniola. Never, I am 
sure, were people gayer or happier. And there was 
Silver sitting back almost out of the firelight, but 


252 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when any- 
thing was wanted, even joining quietly in our 
laughter — the same bland, polite, obsequious sea- 
man of the voyage out. 


CHAPTER XXXIV 

AND LAST 

The next morning we fell early to work, for the 
transportation of this great mass of gold near a 
mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles by 
boat to the Hispaniola, was a considerable task for 
so small a number of workmen. The three fellows 
still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble 
us ; a single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was 
sufficient to insure us against any sudden onslaught, 
and we thought, besides, they had had more than 
enough of fighting. 

Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray 
and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while 
the rest during their absences, piled treasure on the 
beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope’s end, made 
a good load for a grown man — one that he was glad 
to walk slowly with. For my part, as I was not much 
use at carrying, I was kept busy all day in the cave, 
packing the minted money into bread bags. 

It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones’s 
hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much 
larger and so much more varied that I think I never 
had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, 
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, 


TREASURE ISLAND 


253 


doubloons and double guineas and moidores and 
sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for 
the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces 
stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits 
of spider’s web, round pieces and square pieces, and 
pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them 
round your neck — nearly every variety of money 
in the world must, I think, have found a place in that 
collection ; and for number, I am sure they were like 
autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping 
and my fingers with sorting them out. 

Day after day this work went on ; by every even- 
ing a fortune had been stowed aboard, but there was 
another fortune waiting for the morrow ; and all this 
time we heard nothing of the three surviving muti- 
neers. 

At last — I think it was on the third night — the 
doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the 
hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle, when, 
from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought 
us a noise between shrieking and singing. It was only 
a snatch that reached our ears, followed by the 
former silence. 

“Heaven forgive them,” said the doctor ; “ ’tis the 
mutineers !” 

“All drunk, sir,” struck in the voice of Silver from 
behind us. 

Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, 
and, in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard him- 
self once more as quite a privileged and friendly 
dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he 
bore these slights, and with what unwearying polite- 
ness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all. 
Yet, I think, none treated him better than a dog; 


254 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


unless it was Ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid 
of his old quartermaster, or myself, who had really 
something to thank him for ; although for that 
matter, I suppose, I had reason to think even worse 
of him than anybody else, for I had seen him 
meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau. Ac- 
cordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor 
answered him. ^ 

“Drunk or raving,’^ said he. 

“Right you were, sir,” replied Silver; “and 
precious little odds which, to you and me.” 

“I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you 
a humane man,” returned the doctor Avith a sneer, 
“and so my feelings may surprise you. Master Silver. 
But if I were sure they were raving — as I am 
morally certain one, at least, of them is down with 
fever — I should leave this camp, and, at whatever 
risk to my oAvn carcass, take them the assistance of 
my skill.” 

“Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong,” 
quoth Silver. “You wmuld lose your precious life, 
and you may lay to that. I’m on your side now, 
hand and glove; and I shouldn’t wish for to see the 
party weakened, let alone yourself, seeing as I know' 
what I ow'es you. But these men down there, they 
couldn’t keep their w'ord — no, not supposing they 
wished to ; and what’s more, they couldn’t believe as 
you could.” 

“No,” said the doctor. “You’re the man to keep 
your word, we know that.” 

Well, that was about the last news w’e had of the 
three pirates. Only once we heard a gunshot a 
great way off, and supposed them to be hunting. 
A council was held, and it w'as decided that we must 


TREASURE ISLAND 


255 


desert them on the island — to the huge glee, I must 
say, of Ben Gunn, and with the strong approval of 
Gray. We left a good stock of pow^der and shot, 
the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines, and some 
other necessaries, tools, clothing, a spare sail, a 
fathom or two of rope, and, by the particular desire 
of the doctor, a handsome present of tobacco. 

That was about our last doing on the island. Be- 
fore that, we had got the treasure stowed, and had 
shipped enough w'ater and the remainder of the goat 
meat, in case of any distress ; and at last, one fine 
morning, we weighed anchor, which Was about ^ all 
that we could manage, and stood out of North Inlet, 
the same colors flying that the captain had flown 
and fought under at the palisade. 

The three fellow's must have been watching us 
closer than w’e thought for, as we soon had proved. 
For, coming through the narrow's, we had to lie very 
near the southern point, and there we saw all three 
of them kneeling together on a spit of sand, with 
their arms raised in supplication. It w'ent to all our 
hearts, I think, to leave them in that wretched state ; 
but w'e could not risk another mutiny; and to take 
them home for the gibbet would have been a cruel 
sort of kindness. The doctor hailed them and told 
them of the stores we had left, and where they were 
to find them. But they continued to call us by name, 
and appeal to us, for God’s sake, to be merciful, and 
not leave them to die in such a place. 

At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, 
and w'as now' swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of 
them — I know' not which it was — leaped to his feet 
with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his 


256 


BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


shoulder, and sent a shot whistling over Silver’s head 
and through the mainsail. 

After that, we kept under cover of the bulwarks, 
and when next I looked out they had disappeared 
from the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted 
out of sight in the growing distance. That was, at 
least, the end of that ; and before noon, to my inex- 
pressible joy, the highest rock of Treasure Island 
had sunk into the blue round of sea. 

We were so short of men that every one on board 
had to bear a hand — only the captain lying on a 
mattress in the stern and giving his orders ; for, 
though greatly recovered, he was still in want of 
quiet. We laid her head for the nearest port in 
Spanish America, for we could not risk the voyage 
home without fresh hands ; and, as it was, what with 
baffling winds and a couple of fresh gales, we were 
all worn out before we reached it. 

It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a 
most beautiful landlocked gulf, and were immediately 
surrounded by shore boats full of negroes, and Mex- 
ican Indians, and half-bloods, selling fruits and 
vegetables, and offering to dive for bits of money. 
The sight of so many good-humored faces (especially 
the blacks), the taste of the tropical fruits, and 
above all, the lights that began to shine in the town, 
made a most charming contrast to our dark and 
bloody sojourn on the island; and the doctor and the 
squire, taking me along with them, went ashore to 
pass the early part of the night. Here they met the 
captain of an English man-of-war, fell in talk with 
him, went on board his ship, and, in short, had so 
agreeable a time, that day was breaking when we 
came alongside the Hispaniola. 


TREASURE ISLAND 


257 


Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and, as soon as we 
came on board, he began, with wonderful contortions, 
to make us a confession. Silver was gone. The 
maroon had connived at his escape in a shore boat 
some hours ago, and he now assured us he had only 
done so to preserve our lives, which would certainly 
have been forfeit if “that man with the one leg had 
stayed aboard.” But this was not all. The sea 
cook had not gone empty handed. He had cut 
through a bulkhead unobserved, and had removed 
one of the sacks of coin, worth, perhaps, three or 
four hundred guineas, to help him on his further 
wanderings. 

I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit 
of him. 

Well, to make a long story short, we got a few 
hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the 
Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was 
beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five 
men only of those who had sailed returned with her. 
“Drink and the devil had done for the rest,” with a 
vengeance; although, to be sure, we were not quite 
in so bad a case as that other ship they sang about : 

“With one man of her crew alive. 

What put to sea with seventy-five.” 

All of US had an ample share of the treasure, and 
used it wisely or foolishly, according to our natures. 
Captain Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray 
not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smlt 
with the desire to rise, also studied his profession; 
and he is now mate and part owner of a fine full- 
rigged ship; married besides, and the father of a 
family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds. 


'258 


BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


which he spent or lost in three weeks, or, to be more 
exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging 
on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to 
keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and 
he still lives, a great favorite, though something of a 
butt with the country boys, and a notable singer in 
church on Sundays and saints’ days. 

Of Silver we have heard no more. That formid- 
able seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean 
out of my life ; but I dare say he met his old negress, 
and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Cap- 
tain Flint. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his 
chances of comfort in another world are very small. 

The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I 
know, where Flint buried them; and certainly they 
shall lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would 
not bring me back again to that accursed island ; and 
the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear 
the surf booming about its coasts, or start upright 
in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain Flint still 
ringing in my ears : “Pieces of eight ! pieces of 
eight !” 


NOTES 


Page 21. Admiral Benbow: John Benbow, a noted Eng- 
lish admiral of the 17th century, (1653-1702). It is peculiarly 
fitting that his name should be given to the old inn where 
this story begins, for he was twice commissioned to hunt down 
the pirate ships that made commerce so dangerous in his day. 

Page 21. Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest: This is a 
chanty, a song which sailors sing when engaged in a task 
which can be performed in unison and with a rhythmical move- 
ment, such as hoisting a sail or pulling up the anchor. 

Page 22. Mail: the stage or mail coach. 

Page 25. Walking the plank: the pirates were accustomed 
to dispose of their captives by forcing them to walk out blind- 
folded upon a plank projecting from the bulwark of the vessel. 

Page 25. Dry Tortugas: a group of little coral keys near 
the coast of Florida. 

Page 25. Spanish Main: a name now applied to the Carrib- 
bean Sea. In earlier days it was the title of the lands border- 
ing the sea. 

Page 27. Assizes: the periodical sessions of the judges of 
the superior court in every county of England. 

Page SI'. Opened a vein: a common practice of old times 
in case of all sorts of disease was to cause the patient to 
bleed freely. The arm was usually lanced inside the elbow. 

Page 35. Buccaneer: The origin of this name as applied 
to the pirates was as follows: The Spaniards were the first to 
gain possession of the rich sources of gold and other treasures 
in the central portion of the New World. Very soon, however, 
English and French seamen determined that the great rewards 
should not go to one land alone. Accordingly, without the 
formality of a declaration of war between the nations they pro- 
ceeded to attack Spanish galleons and at last they secured com- 
plete control of the seas. The island of Hayti was a splendid 
rendezvous. Numberless herds of swine and wild cattle af- 


259 


260 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


forded ample supplies for reprovisioning the ships. From the 
Carib Indians the seamen learned to cure meat in a peculiar 
way which was called “boucanning” from an Indian word 
meaning dried meat. The French called those who used this 
process, “bucainers” and the English, liking the name, em- 
ployed it in the form, buccaneers. 

The lawless methods of this warfare on Spain were at first 
inspired by a national spirit but they rapidly produced a 
class of adventurers caring for nothing but the plunder, their 
cutlasses turned against all other men and their lives given 
over to every conceivable sort of vileness and crime. At last 
the efforts of various governments succeeded in ridding the 
seas of this particular type of pirates. The daring of the most 
notable captains has cast a sort of romance over this Golden 
Age of Piracy, but apart from the one element of personal 
bravery the story of these men is one of blood, horror, and un- 
believable bestiality. Stevenson has not failed to show this at 
the same time that he has utilized to the full the suggestions 
for a story of adventure which their exploits offered. 

Page 35. Man in the Bible: Judas Iscariot — See Acts 1:25. 

Page 36. Swab: A mop for cleaning the ship. The duty 
of using it being unpleasant, it became a term of contempt. 

Page 36. Fidges: fidgets. 

Page 37. Shake out another reef: the idea is that he will 
escape. 

Page 46. Tinder box: Before the invention of matches a 
fire was kindled by striking a flint with a piece of steel. The 
spark was caught on some inflammable stuff called tinder. The 
tinder box contained the flint, steel, and tinder, usually dry 
linen. 

Page 48. Doubloon: A Spanish coin of the value of about 
$15.00. 

Page 48. Lonisd'or: A coin named for Louis XIII of 
France, worth $15.00. 

Page 48. Pieces of eight: A Spanish silver coin worth one 
dollar, and stamped 8 R- (eight reals). 

Page 51. Flint’s fist: handwriting. Here, the map. 

Page 52. Glim: light. 

Page 53. Hang a leg: delay. 


NOTES 


261 


Page 53. Georges: here is meant the money. There was a 
particular coin so-called. 

Page 59. Blackbeard: his real name was Edward Teach. 
He was a native of Bristol, the town whence the expedition for 
Treasure Island” was to start. His popular name was de- 
rived from his great black beard. His depredations were 
carried on along the Carolina and Virginia coasts. At last, 
in 1718, a reward of 100 pounds being offered for his captur^ 
dead or alive, he was attacked and finally killed by an expedi- 
tion under a Lieutenant Maynard. 

Page 59. iTrinidad: An island of British West Indies. It 
was discovered by Columbus in 1498. Its capital is Port of 
Spain. 

Page 66. Hawke: An English admiral of the century 
(1705-1781). His most famous exploit was the battle in Quibe- 
ron Bay. 

Page 66. Tarpaulins: tarpaulin is canvas covered with tar. 
This expression refers to the sailors pulling in the anchor. 

Page 73. Old Bailey: the noted criminal court of London. 
Page 73. Bow Street runner: one of the special detectives 
attached to the Bow Street Court in London. 

Page 74. Davy: an aflSdavit. 

Page 81. Companion: the covering of the stair case lead- 
ing to the cabin. 

Page 83. Barbecue: this was the name for the wooden 
grate on which the meat was dried as described in the note on 
“buccaneer”. 

Page 83. Drove the bars: the capstan was turned by iron 
bars projecting from the cylinder head. 

Page 86. England: a noted pirate who sailed the waters 
off the coast of Africa and about the East Indies. On account 
of his release of one captain whose ship he bad taken, he was 
deposed and was marooned with three of his crew on the island 
of Mauritius, whence he finally escaped to Madagascar. The 
places named by Silver were famous resorts of the pirates. 

Page 86. Porto Bello: was the port from which the Spanish 
galleons sailed, carrying the treasure from Peru and Panama 
to the Old World. 

Page 86. Boarding of the Viceroy: a famous exploit of 
England. 


362 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


Page 87. Diif: flour boiled with water and eaten with 
molasses. As a change from even more unpalatable food it 
was a favorite dish of sailors. 

Page 88. Bun tip the trades: the trade winds north of the 
equator blow from north-east to south-west. The Hispaniola 
was steered north of the point where the island was looked for 
before taking advantage of these winds. 

Page 88. Luff of the sail: the forward portion of the sail. 
By watching this the steersman can tell if the wind is pushing 
effectively on the whole sail. 

Page 89. Corso Castle: Cape Coast Castle: A British fort 
on the Gold Coast, Guinea, West Africa. 

Page 89. Roberts: sailed as second mate on a merchant 
ship which was taken by pirates. Six w'eeks later, his captors 
elected him to command them. He and his crew took 400 
vessels before he was destroyed. It was the second quarter of 
the 19th century, before the Spanish Main was cleansed of the 
last of the pirates. 

Page 91. Brings a sUj) on his cable: to slip a cable is to 
let it go without attempting to pull it in; here it means “act 
treacherously”. 

Page 94. Execution Dock: the famous place for the hang- 
ing of the pirates in London. Here their bodies would swing 
in chains in view of all ships coming to the city. 

Page 94, Hand and steer: to hand is to furl a sail. 

Page 96. Hold your luff: keep to your intentions. 

Page 96. Mizzentop: the mizzenmast is the hindmost of a 
three-masted vessel. Stevenson makes a slight mistake here, 
as the Hispaniola had but two masts, fore and main. 

Page 97. Captain Kidd: He began his career honorably 
and gained so great a reputation for skill and courage on the 
sea that he was given a ship and a commission from William 
HI to seize all “pirates, freebooters and searovers”. But his 
ex|>edition did not meet with success and, finding his crew 
ready to follow him, he turned pirate himself. After several 
minor captures the Quedah Merchant was taken and a rich 
prize she proved. News of his piracies reached England, but 
Kidd evidently supposed that his conduct had not been dis- 
covered. At any rate, he boldly returned to Boston after first 
burying his treasure on Gardiner Island, at the eastern end of 


NOTES 


263 


I^ng Island Sound. He was arrested, sent to England for 
trial, condemned, and hanged. The interest aroused by his 
public trial and the fact that he had previously been honorably 
associated with noted men, as well as the romantic stories of 
his buried treasure that immediately sprang up, have combined 
to give him a prominence, which neither the character of his 
exploits nor the length of his piratical career would have done. 

Page 105. Strong scour with the ebb: the ebb tide drew 
out with it a large amount of sand. 

Page 119. Chuck-farthen: a game in which coins are 
thrown at a mark. The winner then has the chance to toss 
as many of the coins as he can into a hole. All that go in be- 
come his. 

Page 120. Clove hitch: a knot that won’t slip, hence, “a 
tight place”. 

Page 121. Cutwater: prow, hence, the face. 

Page 125. Lillibullero : a famous tune composed at the 
time when James II was deposed from the English throne, A 
specially favorite air in the army. 

Page 126. Duke of Cumberland: the youngest son of 
George II. 

Page 126, Fontenoy: at this battle the English under the 
Duke of Cumberland were defeated by the French. It was 
fought in the year 1745, during the course of the struggle in 
which the ambition of Frederick the Great for Prussia involved 
Europe. 

Page 127. Stern 'port: a window in the stern or rear end 
of the vessel. 

Page 129. Hang so long in stays: to hesitate. 

Page 133. Carpet bowls: the game of bowls was usually 
played on the grass. If played on a carpet less skill would be 
required. 

Page 142. Noon observation to about six bells: frcwn 12 M. 
to 3 P. M. 

Page 146. Parmesan cheese: cheese made in Parma, Italy, 
of a peculiarly rich flovor. 

Page 150. A sheet in the wind’s eye: drunk. 

Page 165. French leave: sudden. The term came from a 
French custom of leaving a reception with no word of fare- 
well to the host. 


364 . 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


Page 208. Batten down your hatches: keep quiet. 

Page 208. Dogwatch: this expression is due to an oversight 
on Stevenson’s part. The dogwatch comes in the afternoon. 

Page 211. Athwart my hawse: defy me. 

Page 214. Calker: a calker is the one who fills up or calks 
the seams of a vessel. In free usage, the stuff used, and here, 
in sailor’s slang, liquor. 

Page 228. Holus bolus: the whole of it. 

Page 237. Doit: a small Dutch coin. 

Page 253. Moidores: a Portugal coin worth about $6.75. 

Page 253. Sequin: a coin first minted in Venice, worth 
about $2.25. 


Page 256. Nearest port: an indication as ito location of 
“Treasure Island”. 


TOPICS FOR CLASSROOM USE 

These topics are printed here as a suggestion to teachers 
Of the sort of thing which can be done in class with Treasure 
Island. They have actually been used in class in this way: 
At tte beginning of a recitation period, eight or ten members 
of the class were sent to the blackboard to write on these 
topics. They were allowed to look at their books for a moment 
before going to the board, but did not take their texts with 
them. Then, a few minutes before the close of the period 
they were called on to read what they had written, corrections 
were made, and a grade assigned. This kind of work presents 
the best sort of material for rapid drill in sentence structure, 
paragraphing, spelling, and oral discussion. The topics were 
also used in oral composition, but should be sparingly em- 
1 ployed in formal (written) composition out of class, for ex- 
perience shows that for that kind of work the life and interests 
I of the pupil afford better subjects. But the pupils should be 
i encouraged to do, or to attempt things like those which Ste- 
; venson has done. For examples of this kind of work the 
I teacher is referred to the list at the end of these topics. 

I CHAPTER I 

1. The Arrival of the Old Sea Dog at the Admiral Benbow. 

2. How he spent his time. 

3. The Man with a Wooden Leg. 

4. The Song, “Fifteen Men on the Headman’s Chest.” 

5. The Old Sea Dog’s Stories. 

6. “In one way, indeed he bade fair to ruin us.” 

7. Dr. Livesey’s Encounter with the Old Sea Dog. 

CHAPTER II 

1. The Arrival of Black Dog. 

2. Interview between Black Dog and Lully Bones. 

3. Billy Bones’ Stroke. 

4. Dr. Livesey’s Prohibition of Rum to Billy Bones. 

265 


266 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


CHAPTER III 

1. How Billy Bones got a drink of rum from Jim Hawkins. 

2. The Black Spot. 

3. The Old Man Sick. 

4. Arrival of the Blind Man. 

5. Delivering the Black Spot. 

6. Effect of the Black Spot on the Captain. 

CHAPTER IV 

1. Trying to Get Help from the Village. 

2. Finding the Key to the Sailor’s Chest. 

3. Opening the Chest. 

4. Paying the Captain’s Score from His Gold. 

5. Arrival of the Pirates. 

6. Mrs. Hawkins’ Fainting Fit. 

CHAPTER V 

1. The Pirates Break into the Inn. 

2. Searching for the Chart. 

3. Arrival of the Rescue Party. 

k. Fate of Pew, and Escape of the Others. 

3j> State of the Inn Wrecked by the Pirates. 

6. Jjpm keeps the packet (chart). 

CHAPTER VI 


1. Going to the Squire’s. 

2. Why was Dance not allowed to see the chart? 

3. Tell what you have learned about Flint. 

4. The Old Sailor’s Account Book. 

5. The Chart. 

6. The Squire’s Plans. 


CHAPTER VII 

1. Plans to Go on a Voyage, Livesey’s, Jim’s, the Squire’s. 

2. The Squire’s Letter. 

3. Is there any significance in the fact that Long John Silver 

had but one leg? 

4. Arrangements for Mrs. Hawkins. 

5. Journey to Bristol. 


TOPICS FOR CLASSROOM USE 


267 


CHAPTER VIII 

1. Jim Sent on an Errand. 

2. Long John Silver. 

3. Black Dog’s Escape. 

4. The Walk Back With John Silver. 

CHAPTER IX 

1. The Captain’s Complaints. 

2. The Mate. 

3. What the Captain wanted (Powder, Crew). 

4. Where the Crew slept. 

5. J ack’s Opinion of the Captain. 

CHAPTER X 

1. The Sailing of the Hispaniola. 

2. The Drunkenness of the Mate. 

3. John Silver and His Parrot. 

4. The Captain and the Squire. 

5. How Jim got into the apple barrel. 

CHAPTER XI 

1. Advantages of a Pirate’s Life, According to Long John. 

2. How Silver protected his fortune. 

3. Israel Hand’s Desire. 

4. What saved Jim from discovery. 

5. Motives of a Pirate’s Life. 

CHAPTER XII 

1. Land Ho! The Island at Last. 

2. Silver’s Knowledge of the Island. 

3. The Treat for the Crew. 

4. Jim tells his secret. 


CHAPTER XIII 

1. Getting Near the Shore. 

2. The Anchorage. Dr. Livesey’s Fear of Fever. 

3. The Sulkiness of the Men. 

4. A Day Ashore. 


208 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


CHAPTER XIV 

1. The Conversation Jim Overheard, 

2. The Fates of Tom and Alan. 

3. Jim’s Horror. 


CHAPTER XV 

1. The Mysterious Figure in the Woods. 

2. Description of Ben Gunn, 

3. How Gunn came to Treasure Island. 

4. His Life for Four Years. 

BOOK IV 

1. The Doctor’s First Trip Ashore. 

2. The Stockade. (What did it look like?) 

3. The First Encounter with the Pirates on Board. 

4. The Second Boat Trip. 

5. Gray’s Desertion of the Pirates. 

CHAPTER XVII 

1. How the tide hindered the last trip of the boat. 

2. What the pirates were doing with the swivel. 

3. Mr. Trelawney’s Shot. 

4. The Sinking of the Boat. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

1. The Rush to the Stockade, 

2. The Killing of Tom Redruth. 

3. The Captain and the flags. 

4. The Shots from the Hispaniola. 

5. The Captain’s Log. 


CHAPTER XIX 

1. Ben Gunn’s Talk with Jim. 

2. What Jim saw from the trees. 

3. Jim’s Entrance to the Stockade — (How it looked to him). 

4. How the Captain put all to work. 

5. Plans and Hopes of the Party. 


CO »0 i-( CO 


TOPICS FOR CLASSROOM USE 


CHAPTER XX 

1. The Flag of Truce. 

2. Silver’s Entrance into the Stockade. 

3. Silver’s Proposal of Terms. 

4. Silver’s Departure from the Stockade. 

CHAPTER XXI 

1. Deserting the Loopholes. 

. Disposition of the Garrison. 

. The Attack. 

. The Entrance of the Pirates Into the Stockade. 

. The Results of the Attack. 

CHAPTER XXII 

. The Doctor’s Departure. 

. Jim’s Leaving the Stockade. 

. A View of the Hispaniola. 

. Finding and Launching the Coracle. 

CHAPTER XXIII 

1. Navigating the Coracle. 

2. Cutting the Hawser of the Hispaniola. 

3. What the two men on the schooner were doing. 

^ CHAPTER XXIV 

1. Floating on the Waves in the Coracle. 

2. The Hispaniola Adrift. 

3. Getting Aboard the Hispaniola. 

CHAPTER XXV 

1. What Jim saw when he boarded the Hispaniola. 

2. Striking the Jolly Roger. 

3. Jim’s Plans for the Schooner. 

4. Binding Up Hand’s Wounds. 

CHAPTER XXVI 

1. Sailing the Schooner and Plans for Beaching Her. 

2. Going for Wine (What Jim saw from the forecastle). 

3. “I never seen good come o’ goodness yet.” 


CO 


270 


THE BARNES ENGLISH TEXTS 


4. Beaching the Schooner. 

5. The Game of Tag. 

6. Climbing the Mast. The Fate of Hands. 

CHAPTER XXVII 

1. Freeing Himself from the Dirk. 

. Pitching O’Brien Overboard. 

. Dousing the Sails. 

. Going to the Stockade and Capture by the Pirates. 
CHAPTER XXVIII 

1. What Jim found in the buccaneer’s camp. 

2. What had become of the doctor’s party. 

3. Jim’s Speech. 

4. Silver and Jim as Partners. 

CHAPTER XXIX 

1. Making and Passing the Black Spot. 

2. Cutting Paper Out of a Bible. 

3. Silver’s Defiance of the Rest. 

4. Silver’s Re-election as Leader. 

5. The Night. Sleeping Near Silver. 

CHAPTER XXX 

1. A Visit from Dr. Livesey. 

2. Dr. Livesey’s Desire to Jim. 

3. Silver’s Appeal to the Doctor. 

4. llie Doctor’s Proposal to Jim. 

5. The Doctor’s Promise to Silver. 

CHAPTER XXXI 

1. The Pirate’s Breakfast. 

2. The Journey in Search of the Treasure. 

3. Flint’s Pointer. 


CHAPTER XXXH 

1. The Voice in the Trees. 

2. How Silver reassured his men. 

3. The Echo. 

4. The Rifled Cache. 


CO 


TOPICS FOR CLASSROOM USE 


271 


CHAPTER XXXIII 

1. How the men turned on Silver. 

. Arrival of the Doctor’s Party, 

. Heading the Pirates Off From Their Boats. 

, Ben Gunn’s Disposal of the Treasure. 

. Why the doctor allowed the pirates the stockade and the 
. chart, 

6. The Hispaniola Once More. 

7. The Night at the Cave, 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

1. Transporting the Treasure to the Ship. 

2. The Kinds of Coins in the Collection. 

3. The Mutineers Drunk or Raving? 

4. What to Do With the Mutineers on the Island? 

5. Leaving Them on the Shore. 

6. Landing at the Spanish American Town, 

7. Silver’s Escape With Some Treasure. 

8. The Further History of the Crew. 

a. Grey. b. Ben Gunn. c. Silver, d. Jim Hawkins. 


DESCRIPTION 


1. After you have read Stevenson’s description of the old 
sea-dog at the “Admiral Benbow,” try to see how the author 
gives character to the old sailor. Then in your own way 
describe a tramp, or a villain, or a peculiar character whom 
you have seen, and make the details you use give their character 
to the person you are trying to describe. 

2. Try your hand at an impression similar to that which 
Stevenson produces by the tapping of the stick in the hands 
of old Pew, or the tallowy face of Black Dog. The ticking of 
a clock in a deserted house, or the strange barking of a dog 
in a lonely place might furnish you with a suggestion. 

3. See how Stevenson manages to describe Treasure Island 
in Chapters XII and XIII. Then see what you can do with 
a description of some feature of natural scenery with which 
you are acquainted. Have some one who knows it already 
explain it as John Silver does in the book. 

4. In Chapter XVI the Doctor, and in Chapter XIX Jim 
Hawkins describe the stockade. Read the two descriptions 
together and then write about a house in the woods, or in a 
tree top, or a doll’s house, or a snow fort that you have seen 
or would like to build. 

5. Principal factors in description are the points of view, 
choice and arrangement of details, and the giving of character 
to the description by the use of concrete and significant words. 
Study some of Stevenson’s descriptions with these factors in 
mind, for example his account of the Hispaniola, and then do 
something similar, say a house, or a public building, or a 
vessel of some sort. 

6. Imagine a visit to an old attic containing trunks and 
packing cases belonging to a sailor or a traveller, and then 
describe the contents you would be likely to find. 

7. If you have ever made a collection of any sort such as 
stamps, flowers, coins, or minerals, tell about it as interestingly 

272 


DESCRIPTION 


273 


as you can. If you can explain why it interests you, you can 
probably interest other people. 

8. Describe a man who hais been left a prisoner on an island 
for a number of years. What would he wear? What would 
he eat? (See also the Paragraph Topic in Exposition similar 
to this). 


EXPOSITION 

1. Explain the theory of a kite or a windmiU. 

2. Show by diagrams and by your own writing how a sailing 
vessel may be made to go against the wind. 

3. If you have ever made a toy sailboat tell how you did it. 

4. Write a letter to a friend inviting him to visit you and 
giving him very plain directions as to the route from his home 
to yours. 

5. Notice how a blind man gets around and write about his 
methods. Tell of some adventures in the dark when you could 
not use your eyes to any advantage. You might blindfold 
yourself and make some experiments. 

6. How is a ship navigated from port to port across the 
high seas? What are latitude and longitude and how are they 
ascertained? Of what use is a chart? a compass? soundings? 
If you do not know, ask some one who does, but first use your 
imagination. 

7. Explain how a hermit on a desert island might manage to 
live. If you have read Robinson Crusoe, let that give you some 
hints. How would he go about the business of furnishing him- 
self with food, clothing, and shelter? How would he keep 
account of time? Could he obtain any companionship for him- 
self? Three books which deal with these problems are Foul 
Play by Charles Reade, The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, 
and The Swiss Family Robinson by David Wyss. 

8. If you were preparing to organize an expedition or a 
picnic party, how would you go about it? Where would you 
find a ship? How engage a crew? What arrangements would 
you make for food? for safety? 


ADDITIONAL COMPOSITION 
TOPICS 


As we have already hinted, we deem it unwise to use the text 
of Treasure Island as a hunting ground for formal written 
compositions. For the pupil to try to do over again what 
Stevenson has already done with consummate art is not only 
futile but extremely uninteresting; but the book is rich in sug- 
gestiveness for composition writing of a sort that ought to ap- 
peal to healthy minded children. Instead of trying to do over 
again what the author of Treasure Island has already done so 
well, it is suggested that the pupil be encouraged to do some 
things similar to those which Stevenson has done. For con- 
venience, we shall group these topics under the familiar di- 
visions of prose discourse. Any teacher will be able to add 
largely to this list. 

NARRATION. 

1. Invent a story of a lonely inn in the country at the time 
of the Revolutionary War, and bring British soldiers and 
Tories into the scene. 

2. An imaginarj" adventure with a tramp on a lonely road 
at nightfall. 

3. Find an old chest in your grandfather’s attic. Tell what 
is in it, and then make a story about one or more of the things 
which you find there. 

4. Draw a picture of an old inn like the Admiral Benbow, 
and write a story to fit the picture. If possible, have secret 
stairs and a secret room in the inn. 

5. Invent a story of how Jim Hawkins and his mother called 
on one of the neighbors for aid and was refused. Bring direct 
conversation into your narrative. 

6. What an eavesdropper heard one day when he was hid- 
ing in a closet in the room where the faculty of the school were 
holding a consultation. 


274 


ADDITIONAL COMPOSITION TOPICS 


275 


7. A story about the things found in a boy’s pocket. 

8. Keep a log-book of an imaginary cruise in a police boat, 
or in a revenue cutter, or in a lighthouse tender. See some 
pa^r like the New York Herald or the Boston Herald which 
makes a specialty of maritime news. 

9. A story of a first visit to a strange port, or a new town, 
or a fresh scene. 

10. Your father has taken you to a large city for an excur- 
sion, but through some oversight you have been left behind 
without any money. Tell what you would do under those cir- 
cumstances. 

11. Draw a picture or a plan of an intricate cave where 
pirates may have buried some treasure in past times, and then 
write a story of the finding of the gold. 

12. Tell the story of two rival companies of boys who built 
huts in the woods and waged mimic war with each other. 

13. Invent a story of how the old salt at the Admiral Ben- 
bow came by the saber wound on his cheek. 

14. Write a short story to show why Black Dog did not go 
on the Hispaniola. 

15. Imagine and write out a further history of Long John 
Silver. Did he ever rejoin his wife? 

16. Tell the story of the pirates left behind on Treasure 
Island. What resources had they? Is it likely that they were 
ever rescued? Did they deserve their fate? 




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